Blessed Are the Meek

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Introduction

We’ve begun to look at what are called the “Beatitudes.”
Now, remember the word beatitude is referring to “a supreme state of happiness.” Each of these statements that starts with “blessed are...” means “happy are...” So, here at the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is telling us what truly happy people look like—he’s telling us how we can be happy.
But with each of these statements, He is describing for us what children of God look like. He’s telling us what kind of people will inherit His kingdom--what kind of people will reign with the Lord Jesus when He returns to setup His kingdom on earth.
And we know that these verses are referring to us because in the book of James believers are called “heirs” of the kingdom, and elsewhere (like John 1), we’re called “the children of God”—at least, those of us who have been born again.
So these verses are describing us. But, you were to examine your life, or if you asked your parents, or siblings, would they say that these Beaitudes are an accurate description of your life and my life?
If not, that’s a big problem! Remember, we talked about last week how Jesus is the Great Physician. And if He shows you that your life does not look like the Beatitudes, He’s letting you know you have a heart problem. And you need to take it seriously.
On Sunday morning, we looked at 3 warnings—what will happen if we don’t take the Sermon on the Mount seriously…what will happen if we don’t look like these Beatitudes:
Good-for-nothing Christians
Called least in the kingdom of heaven (“suffer loss” at the Judgment Seat of Christ)
Our lives on earth will be ruined
And so we’ve looked at how it all begins with the first two Beatitudes.
Poor in spirit — “small view of self based on a big view of God”
When we get in the sight of a Holy God, we realize how small and helpless we are. We realize that we’re beggars before Him who desperately need His help.
Mourn
We saw from the example of Job that, not only are we brought to a sense of deep humility when we enter God’s presence, but we’re also led to mourn over how bad our sin really is.
Remember Job? The man described as more righteous than anyone else on earth said, “I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes” when he entered the presence of God.
Tonight, we’re going to look at the third Beatitude, which logically builds on those first two. What’s really important to understand about these Beatitudes is that they build on each other. That is why we urged everyone at the beginning of this series to “SHOW UP” to church every week, so that you don’t miss any of these building blocks, because the Beatitudes build on each other. And you’re really going to see what I mean tonight. So let’s go ahead and read the first few verses of Matthew 5 to get the context and then jump into studying this third Beatitude.

What is Meekness?

To start, let’s answer the question, What is Meekness? What does it mean to be meek? Well, we’re going to let Scripture answer that for us and really show us what meekness looks like, but here are a few statements that I think would be helpful to put at the top of your notes in big letters (I adapted these from Dr. M. Lloyd-Jones):
Meekness is...
Humility in action”
Humility expressed in relationships.”
“What shows up on the outside when someone is humble on the inside.”
If you think about being poor in spirit as the engine of these Beatitudes, meekness is one of the tires—it’s where the rubber meets the road. If the engine isn’t working well, this tire won’t spin, and you won’t go anywhere.
Or, if you think about poor in spirit as the inside of the tea bag, and the flavourful tea as meekness. It’s what inside that tea bag that determines the colour and taste of the tea, right?
Poor in spirit is what goes on in your heart, meekness shows up in your eyes, your tongue, your hands, your feet.
So, this is where the Beatitudes get so hard. What do I mean?
Well, thus far, we’ve been looking at ourselves and God—our private life. But now, we’re moving into the realm of others.
If we were to ask the people you have relationships with—God, your family, your coworkers…would they say that you’re a meek person?
Would they say, by looking at your outward actions, that you’re a humble person?
Maybe you think, yes! Well, maybe people would vouch for you…but in your relationship with God, are you meek?
This is what we must deal with tonight, but we don’t really know what this meekness looks like yet. We’ve only given you a bird’s eye view and touched on our main points.
Now, here is where the BIble is so awesome. When Jesus uttered this Beatitude, “Blessed are the meek”…did He, then and there, explain what He meant by that? No, He just kept on going.
But remember, who is His audience? Jewish people…people who were supposed to know the Old Testament very well.
And do you remember how we said that the Sermon on the Mount is “rooted in the OT and repeated in the NT.” Well, here we see another tremendous example of that. When Jesus gave this Beatitude, it was not an original statement. IT was not “new.” The Jews listening should have been familiar with what He was saying, because these exact words are found in the Old Testament! In fact, this Beatitude is elaborately explained in an entire chapter!
Could you turn to Psalm 37?

Meekness Defined in Psalm 37

Meekness = the opposite of “fretting” (anxiety/worry caused by anger burning in your heart; feeling like you have to take matters into your own hands)
See also Proverbs 24:17-20
Meekness = waiting on the Lord (trusting in Him, leaving things in His hands)
Trusting in Him, concerning yourself only with pleasing Him, leaving the evildoing of others’ to His care; trusting that He will reward you and make all things right in His time.
Knowing what you’re trusting in, or what God has promised, requires you to be...
Teachable: Psalm 25:4-5, 9
Ok, so now that you have an idea of what meekness is, let’s see how it plays out in our relationships:

1. Meekness Before God

Based on the first two Beatitudes.
If we’re poor in spirit and mourning over our sin, it’s only naturaly that we will be looking to God—trusting in Him because we know we can’t trust ourselves--and humbly doing whatever He tells us to do.
When you see God for Who He is, and yourself for who you really are, it only makes sense to TRUST HIM and to have a TEACHABLE attitude toward Him.
If you know how big God is and how small you are, you’re not going to have any trouble LEAVING THINGS IN HIS HANDS. If you believe God’s promises, it will be worth it to CHOOSE MEEKNESS.

2. Meekness Toward Others

LOOK AT PSALM 38:1-15
HERE, WE SEE THE FIRST 3 BEATITUDES ALTOGETHER.
David saw himself for who he really was in the sight of God. And he mourned over it.
Then, it seemed that everyone was against him.
But after getting the proper view of God and himself, how did he respond to the way people were mistreating him? SEE VERSES 13-15.
This is meekness!
When you’ve seen yourself in the sight of God, begged for His mercy and received it, trusted that He will bring all things to justice but at the same time you’re trusting that He will be gracious to you....you come to the place that...
You realize that NO ONE CAN HURT YOU.
No one can do anything to you or I that is worse than what we ultimately deserve.
You realize that no one can say anything about you that is too bad.

3. Meekness from the Heart

LOOK AT VERSE 37 of Psalm 37.
Who’s the Perfect man?
Philippians 2:3-8 “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Jesus was meek before His Father:
John 5:19 “Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”
Luke 2:51 And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
Jesus was meek toward others.
TURN TO I PETER 2:18-25.
And He did it all, remember, FROM THE HEART.

Conclusion

So what do we do with all this truth?
We know what meekness is now.
It’s the opposite of fretting.
It’s “waiting on the Lord” (trusting in Him, being teachable).
2. We know what meekness looks like in relationships
Toward God
Toward others
3. We know that it must come from the heart.
And we know it’s not going to come from our natural, sinful heart.
If we look to ourselves and try to manufacture this, it won’t happen. We must...
MARK THE PERFECT MAN, AND BEHOLD THE UPRIGHT.
WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TO HAVE JESUS’ HEART TAKE OVER, WE’VE GOT TO LET HIS MIND RUN THINGS IN OUR HEARTS.
WE’VE GOT TO FIX OUR EYES ON HIM AND LEARN FROM HIM.
WE’VE GOT TO DENY OURSELVES, TAKE UP OUR CROSS, AND FOLLOW HIM.
ARE YOU MEEK LIKE JESUS?

Invitation

Ask the Holy Spirit to search you tonight.
Are you meek toward God (trusting Him, teachable)?
Are you meek towards others? Or are you defensive?
Are you letting Jesus live from within?
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