Be Merciful, for God’s Kingdom is Near

(G) Ground

A statement and the argument or reason for that statement (supporting proposition follows).

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.“

Matthew 5:7

Blessed are the merciful,

Who blesses the merciful? Who are the ‘merciful’? Where else does Jesus talk about the ‘merciful’?

for they shall receive mercy.

Does those who show mercy receive mercy? Does everyone receive mercy? How do those receive? Who gives the mercy?

1.Title

Good morning everyone, wonderful to see you today.

GREETING FROM THE WAY CHURCH

If you are taking notes or would just like a title for this mornings message I’ve called it,

“Be Merciful, for God is Merciful”

Before we jump in to this mornings text let me pray.

2. Pray

3. Introduction, part 1

This morning we are going to be looking at the teaching of Jesus in what is know as ‘The Beatitudes’.

These are eight blessings which Jesus gives when teaching his famous Sermon on the Mount.

If you have a bible, please turn to Matthew chapter 5, I’ll read from verse 1 to verse 12.

4. Scripture

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.

He said:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. “

Matthew 5:1–12 (NIV)

This is the word of The Lord.

5. Introduction, part 2

For this morning we’re going to focus our time on verse 7,

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Matthew 5:7 (NIV)

However, before we jump into that section let us spend a few minutes thinking about the Beatitudes as a whole.

Darrell Johnson, who serves on the leadership team at The Way pointed out in a sermon a few months ago that the world “blessing” can be paraphrase as “bless you”.

So,

“Bless you who are poor in spirit."

or,

“Bless you who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”

or in our case,

“Bless you who are merciful.”

The ‘blessing’ could be through of as being ‘in sync’ with the what Jesus is doing.

And what Jesus is bringing the Kingdom of Heaven near.

In Matthew 3: 2 Jesus has already said,

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Matthew 3:2 (ESV)

Some translations say,

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Matthew 3:2 (NIV)

Darrell when on to say that we are blessed because God’s kingdom has come near.

Because God’s kingdom has come near, we are blessed.

And all these eight blessings flow together to define God’s new kingdom,

Those who are poor in spirit run to God, the King.

Then as they begin to think the same way as the King they mourn for the condition of the world

They become meek and gentle, no longer putting themselves first but looking out for other, loving their neighbour.

They hunger and thirst of God and that their lives would become more like His.

And because they begin to understand all that God has done for them they show mercy to other.

As they continue to become more and more like the King they become more and more pure in heart.

And from that flows out a desire to be a peacemaker with though around them.

And just like the King they are sometimes revile and persecuted.

Remember, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, but it has not fully come.

For that we are still waiting.

But while we are waiting let us look for closely at our main text for this morning, verse 7.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Matthew 5:7 (NIV)

5. Understanding Mercy in Light of God’s Grace

So, what comes to mind when you think of the word Mercy?

I have three kids, and when I asked them what they thought about the word “mercy” they immediately said the children’s game.

You may know the one…

The idea is that you lock fingers together with another person and twisting your wrists attempt to make them shout “mercy”.

However Websters defines the word quite differently.

It says ‘mercy’ is

Mildness or tenderness of heart which causes a person to overlook injuries,

or to treat an offender better than he deserves;

and to forbear punishment,

and inflict less than justice warrants.

So what else do you think of when you hear these words?

For me I immediately think about Gods grace.

In fact you could say Grace and Mercy are two sides of the same coin.

“Grace” is getting what you don’t deserve

i.e. forgiveness

friendship with God

and eternal life.

Whereas “Mercy” is not getting what you do deserve

i.e. condemnation

enmity with God

and eternal punishment.

So I want to ask us, are our lives defined by mercy?

Are we merciful to others?

And are we merciful to ourselves?

In other worlds, are we by nature merciful?

6. Outline Overview

As I’ve looked at mercy this week, it can be broken down into three main areas or points:

Past mercy Present mercy And future mercy

Let’s begin with Past Mercies.

7. Past Mercy: Old Testament

Throughout the Old Testament we see God’s mercy to His people.

In Genesis 3 we read that Adam and Eve rebelled against God.

They disobeying His one command which was not to eat from a certain tree in the garden.

And God was very clear when He said to them,

“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;

but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Genesis 2:16–17 (NIV)

But so often like us, they didn’t listen.

Instead they listened to the lies of the serpent, the devil,

“Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Genesis 3: 1 (NIV)

How often do we listen to that voice?

The lie of the enemy, or even the lie from ourselves.

Listen to the wise words of Martin Lloyd-Jones,

“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Spiritual Depression, 1965)

That is wise counsel.

“…most of our unhappiness is due to the fact that we are listening to ourselves instead of talking to ourself”

Instead let us remind ourselves of God’s promises.

Submit yourselves, then, to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

James 4: 7 (NIV)

or

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41: 10 (NIV)

Or even

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19 (NIV)

How wonderful are Gods promises.

What comfort they bring when we’re in need.

However Adam and Eve did not hold fast to Gods word.

Instead they listened to the lie.

But God, in his grace reached out His hand and had mercy on them.

Like this there are many many stories of God’s mercy in the Old Testament?

From the story of Ruth, born outside of God’s chosen people, but in mercy, God drew her near. (Ruth)

Or God’s mercy through Nathan to King David when he committed adultery with with Bathsheba and had murdered her husband. (Samuel 12)

Or the story of how God fed Elijah through ravens bringing him bread and meat in the morning and evening as he hide in the Kerith Ravine. (1 Kings 17)

And let us not forget the book of Judges which tells of the cycle of madness which Israel goes through time and time again. How the Israelites became like the Canaanites and sin against God, so God would allow them to be concurred and oppressed by the Canaanites. Eventually the Israelites would see the error of their ways and depend, turning back to God. So in God’s mercy He would raise up a Judge from amount the people who would defeat the Canaanites and bring about peace. But eventually Israelite would sin again and it would all start over.

However God, despite their sin remained faithful and merciful towards them

Is this not a picture of how God treats us, constantly loving us even when we fail over and over again!

8. Past Mercy: New Testament

However, Gods mercy is not only evident in the Old Testament, but also in the New.

In the book of John we read how a woman caught in adultery was brought before Jesus.

It’s important to remember that she was caught in the act, so there could be no doubt she was guilt.

Based on the Law the women should have been put to death.

However Jesus shows amazing mercy to her.

Instead of condemning her as the people wanted, he instead said to them,

Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

John 8: 7 (NIV)

The people know they too where sinful, and as they drifted away, Jesus said,

“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared.

“Go now and leave your life of sin.”

John 8:10–11 (NIV)

Just as Jesus was merciful to the woman, so is merciful to us.

And it is through the Christ work on the Cross the we see God’s greatest act of mercy.

Through the cross God has shown His unmeasurable mercy to us.

In sending His own son to die in our place, we can be reconciled to God.

We are reminded in Ephesians that ‘…even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved…’. (Ephesians 2:5)

Listen to words of Charles Spurgeon,

There is nothing little in God;

His mercy is like Himself - it is infinite.

You cannot measure it.

His mercy is so great that it forgives great sins to great sinners, after great lengths of time,

and then gives great favours and great privileges, and raises us up to great enjoyments in the great heaven of the great God.

C. H. Spurgeon (Morning and Evening, 1866)

But God’s mercy doesn’t end at the cross.

Listen to what the writer of Lamentations says to us,

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22–23 (ESV)

His mercies never come to an end.

You can not out sin Gods grace.

You can not run from his mercy.

You can not hide from his face.

God is always there for you.

In every situation,

Every day,

Always.

9. Present Mercy

Our second point is Present Mercy.

When we put our trust in Jesus’ death of the cross, when we believe in His saving grace to us, taking our sins upon Himself we often think our lives will get easier, but in fact it can often feel as it life gets harder.

The bible calls these difficulties trials and they are one of the primary ways in which God grows us and fashions us into the image of His son.

In James 1 we read,

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

James 1:2–4 (NIV)

God uses trials and suffering in our lives to produce steadfastness, and holiness.

The theological term is Sanctification.

Just as Christ suffered, so also we suffer.

That is what He meant by,

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

Luke 9: 23 (NIV)

But through our trails God continues to pour out His mercy to us.

Listen to the Psalmist as they declare God’s ongoing love to us.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalms 23:6 (NIV)

Do not withhold your mercy from me, Lord; may your love and faithfulness always protect me.

Psalms 40:11 (NIV)

But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

Psalms 86:15 (NIV)

However God’s mercy to us goes even further that this.

The fact we woke up this morning breathing, our heart beating, blood pulsing through our veins, still full of faith shows God’s amazing grace and mercy towards us.

And this leads us to my final point, Future Mercy.

10. Future Mercy

As we look to the future, God has promised us amazing things.

Because of God’s saving grace in our lives we can hold firm to the fact that He will see us through to the end.

Jesus himself says in John 6,

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

John 6: 39-40 (NIV)

God in his mercy will continue to sustain us to the end.

There is nothing you can do to lose your salvation.

There is no sin you can commit which will cause God to stop loving you.

You are safe and secure in His amazing grace and love to you.

But we all know life does gets hard.

We know temptations come.

We know sometimes we fall.

But we can rest In God’s word when it says,

In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1: 3-5 (NIV)

God’s love continues to reach out to us and his grace and mercy continues to sustain us as we walk out our Christian life.

When someone asks you, “How’s your day going?”

You can truly respond, “Better than I deserve!”

11. Our Response to God’s Mercy

So all of this begs the question, returning us to where we started,

If God has been so merciful to us, how should we respond to others?

Later on in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is teaching the crowd how to pray.

In it He says,

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

Matthew 6:9–13 (NIV)

At the end of the pray Jesus goes back and reiterates His point on forgives in more detail.

He says,

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Matthew 6:15-16 (NIV)

So is Jesus saying, if we do not forgive others then He will not forgive us?

Well the answers is no, this is not what this means.

If it did then we are adding something to the work of Christ on the cross.

We would be saying His work was not enough, we need to forgive everyone on top of what He did.

That is not the gospel message.

So what does this mean?

Jesus is showing that there is a direct relationship between Gods forgiveness to us and our forgiveness of others.

If we do not forgive we probably do not understand what Christ has done for us on the cross.

Forgiveness restores personal relationships, both between us and God, and each other.

This is not talking about our salvation but our ongoing relationship with God.

You can not properly walk in fellowship with God if you refuses to forgive others.

And as we’ve already said, if you refuse to show mercy and forgiveness to others you probably do not fully understand the gospel.

In his book, ‘The Cross Centered Life’ C. J. Mahaney writes:

When I become bitter or unforgiving toward others, I’m assuming that the sins of others are more serious than my sins against God.

The cross transforms my perspective.

Through the cross I realize that no sin committed against me will ever be as serious as the innumerable sins I’ve committed against God.

When we understand how much God has forgiven us, it’s not difficult to forgive others.

C. J. Mahaney (The Cross Centered Life, 2002)

If we want to know how to become merciful we need to first look deep at our own sinfulness.

Only after truly looking at how sinful we are, and how much God has forgiving us will we see what true mercy is.

We need to really understand that everything we have is because of the mercy of God on a sinner like me.

Then we will be merciful to other.

When Jesus was ask what was the greatest commandment He said,

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

and

“Love your neighbour as yourself.”

Matthew 22:37–39 (NIV)

To fully love your neighbour, to fully show mercy to them we are called to forgiveness.

12. Summary

So as we begin to wrap things up let us remember,

We are not by nature as mercifully and gracious as we would like to believe.

However, God who is rich in mercy and because of His great love to us has forgiven our sins.

He as taken out our heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh.

And has given us His Holy Spirit to enable us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling we have received.

And not only does He continue to lavish mercy on us freely each day, but has also promises to keep us until the time we see Him face to face.

13. Application

So through way of application:

Firstly, for all of us, we should praise and worship to God for His mercy and grace in our lives each day.

Second, for those of us who are saved, God calls to be imitators of Himself.

We are to forgiving others, just as God has forgiven us.

And lastly, for those of you who don’t yet know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, today is the day to put your faith in Him.

As we close in prayer, ask God to forgive your sins,

and for Him to become the centre of your life.

14. Pray

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