The Good Life - "Blessed are Those Who Mourn."

Read Matthew 5:1-12

“Poor in spirit” - Spiritual poverty, recognizing your deep need for God’s presence in your life.

We cannot be full of the Holy Spirit until we accept our own sinfulness and separation from God.

Have you ever learned terrible news. There is a progression to grief starting with understanding and eventually experiencing the emotions that come along with it. This is the mourning stage.

Jesus spoke verse 4 as a progression from verse 3. Becoming poor in spirit opens the door for mourning. (The 1st is intellectual and the 2nd is emotional)

Refers to being saddened by the things that sadden God.

The people hearing the sermon on the mount were a mournful people due to sinful state of Israel at this time. They were a humiliated people due to their history.

Jesus lamented over their disobedience and lack of love for his Father.

Sin had put the Jewish nation under the rule of Rome, into poverty, and religious stagnation. No one thrived. People just wanted to “get by”.

What the verse is not referencing...

The verse is not to be read as any type of mourning.

Your favorite sports team.

Someone dying.

General depression.

God’s people are set apart from humanity. We even mourn differently than others.

Mourn Under God’s Hand

“mourn” (pantheo) - be sad; grieve; lament

Jesus brought encouragement to those who were mourning for the people who had fallen so far away from God.

People who don’t laugh or make excuses for sin and difficult days.

Spiritual poverty is eventually poured out.

Patch Adams grew tired of helping people after he lost his wife.

As disciples, we all will experience the brokeness and loss of this world. We will feel like we are losing and wonder why we even take the time to serve God anymore.

People we serve can break our spirit.

Losing our brothers and sisters in Christ can destroy.

The vanity of this world and its agenda can leave us in a place of pure lamentation.

“How she sits alone, the city once crowded with people! She who was great among the nations has become like a widow. The princess among the provinces has been put to forced labor. She weeps bitterly during the night with tears on her cheeks. There is no one to offer her comfort, not one from all her lovers. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.” (Lamentations 1:1-2)

Jeremiah, the “weeping prophet”, knew and understood this feeling.

Jesus says that “happy” are those who mourn. Why? While you mourn the vanity of life, you can uphold the sanctity of life knowing that with Christ, everything is still worth pursuing. Even in sadness, you are there in His hand.

Mourn With a Warm Heart

Jesus could have moved on to the humble, but he stopped to emphasize the mournful heart.

He knew the peoples plight and understood what they faced on a daily basis. They were in this spot because of a poor history. Their ancestors had been stiff-necked, just like the relgious leaders of their day.

“Now if you faithfully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all his commands I am giving you today, the Lord your God will put you far above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come and overtake you, because you obey the Lord your God. You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. Your offspring will be blessed, and your land’s produce, and the offspring of your livestock, including the young of your herds and the newborn of your flocks. Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.” - (Deuteronomy 28:1-6)

This was one of many promises provided to God’s people. But, they did not obey God. They missed the mark and paid for it many times over from generation to generation.

Jesus understood the pain that the Jewish nation felt over their history.

Which is why it was not enough to acknowledge personal spiritual bankruptcy with a cold heart.

Culture - The way of life for a society. “The way things are.” The culture of a people rises above a mission statement.

The culture of the Jews had become apathetic acceptance.

Even when times are truly mournful, the people just accept it as the reality.

No one wants to experience full emotion over an event, but if you are unwilling to mourn, you are setting a tone that will be difficult to overcome.

When there is spiritual injustice, the believer will find sorrow over the event.

Don’t allow the negativity of life to cause you to become an apathetic Christian.

Mourn With the Intention to Rejoice.

Jesus encouraged his followers that the mournful in Christ would be comforted.

There would be a beauty for ashes and a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

“He speaks, and listening to his voice; New life the dead receive,; The mournful, broken hearts rejoice, The humble poor believer.” - Charles Wesley

The days of mourning would soon end, and then God will wipe away all tears from their eyes.

In God’s new kingdom, God’s new covenant will restore what has been lost due to the violation of the old covenant.

“The Spirit of the Lord God is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion; to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of mourning, and splendid clothes instead of despair. And they will be called righteous trees, planted by the Lord to glorify him.” - (Isaiah 61:1-3)

In God’s salvation, they will find a happiness which transcends their worldly condition.

I have personally watched my wife mourn with those who mourn and weep with those who weep. But, she didn’t do this for the sake of the pain alone, but to see God’s redemptive story in the life of others.

The kingdom of Heaven is in our midst. We belong to God’s rule and authority. We mourn under his hand to with the belief that everything wrong with the world will be reverse.

Comfort is coming for the mourning.