Sermon on the Mount
The Beatitudes #2
Matthew 5:4
“Blessed are those who mourn”
According to Wikipedia: no less than 1,354,664 died for America in war.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-facts
Memorial Day is a day of mourning:
Ask a soilder and they will tell you Memorial Day isn’t about them
They are here, they came home alive,
THIS DAY IS ABOUT THE ONES THAT DID NOT COME HOME...
On Memorial Day we will mourn:
Lives that ended too soon
Children who will grow up without their parent
Tears that seem to have no cure
Unexplainable pain
Despair and gloom fill the heart and mind
Many here have lived in graveyard of buried hopes…
The loss of your sweetheart
A crushed dream
A past that haunts you today
Pain that won’t go away….
Stick with me because Jesus has a blessing for you today:
We are in week 2 of the Sermon on the Mount
Last week looked at how the poor in spirit are blessed
Today in Matthew 5:4 Jesus says the mourner will be blessed:
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” Matthew 5:4
At first look that doesn’t make sense:
Mourning and cursed seem to fit better than mourning and Blessed
But God’s way is not man’s way
Let’s review some key words….
Blessed
A BLESSING is something God gives:
That you can’t get anywhere else.
It means: Fortunate, Happy, Rich,
Eugene Peterson translates Matthew 5:4 this way in the Message...
“You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.”
What does it mean to Mourn?
Mourning is how grief is expressed…
Synonyms for mourn: Ache, agonize, cry, grieve, lament, regret, weep
In Matthew 5:4 -mourning is best understood to be as mourning over sin
“those here promised comfort are not primarily those who mourn the loss of a loved one, but those who mourn the loss of their innocence, their righteousness, their self-respect. It is not the sorrow of bereavement to which Christ refers, but the sorrow of repentance.”
John Stott
COMFORT:
You could translate this second beatitude ‘Happy are the unhappy
The verb comfort can have the meaning “encourage”:
There is no greater comfort than knowing you are right with God
You are near to God
God has shown you His love…
Many have come to God mourning and been comforted
God deliberately engages with the brokenhearted….
God hears the cry of His children
God listens to the afflicted and suffering
He waits for people to turn their HEARTS toward HIM
I hope to write a book someday called “The sin hangover”:
I do not drink, and I’ve never been drunk
But I’ve seen people on TV with a hangover, so I’m sort of an expert
There bodies are dehydrated, the senses are misfiring, they can barely function
They are a mess of pain and disorientation
Those are the same spiritual symptoms of Sin:
faith is weak, fears are heightened, we can barely function.
we get angry at the world and sad at the same time.
It’s in those times we need to get on our knees and repent.
what I call the “sin hangover”, it feels horrible,
Un checked sin will separate us from God’s BLESSING
Sin is serious business, with real consequences
AND YET THERE WOULD BE A MAJOR PROBLEM:
If a Christian could sin and not suffer
Sin should bring a sting
It should bring us to SORROW and REPENTANCE
Our SIN ought to overwhelm us with sorrow
Sorrow and mourning come before forgiveness and restoration
Sorrow should drive us to admit our GUILT
we KNEW what God wanted,
But we DID what we wanted.
We bring the sorrow and God brings the Comfort
Some won’t mourn their SIN:
This person has no blessing, there is no comfort
They will not humble themself before the LORD
They will take NO RESPONSIBILITY for their sin
They DEFY God’s LAW, and THINK they will NEVER BE ACCOUNTABLE...
“...For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’” So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.” Romans 14:10b-12
To often we look for “COMFORT” in all the wrong place:
In success, in sex outside of marriage, in entertainment, in sports, in pleasure, in gluttony and in materialism
2 Corinthians opens this way….
“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” (2 Cor. 1:2-4)
Did you catch what the names of God in the text???
“The Father of compassion”
“The God of all comfort”
When we come to the Lord with humility and confession:
God does not pour salt in our wound
God brings comfort, healing and forgiveness
When we are broken and contrite, we are where God can work with us….
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,Because the Lord has anointed me
To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives
And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord
And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,”
Isaiah 61:1-2 (NASB)
Conclusions...
1. We need to get on our knees
When we sin we must be quick to get on our knees.
We must not allow sin to stack up in our lives.
Let’s ask God to prick our heart when we sin,
so that we will run from sin and not toward sin.
If we find ourselves guilty of sin we have to quickly confess and repent of the sin.
We need to get in front of God on our knees, and
He has promised to meet us there with comfort.
We need God to teach us to hate sin, and turn from our love of sin.
2. We can’t think too highly of ourselves.
Since we are prone to sin, shouldn’t we be humble?
Shouldn’t our humility be obvious to those around us?
We need to remember how much God has forgiven us and
let that forgiveness be the lense we see other people.
3. Turn yourself in
Police have a saying about criminals who run from them….
You can run if you want, but you’ll just go to jail tired.
The point is we can attempt to hide our sin from God, but He already knows our sin!
Confess to God your sins.
Ask God not only forgiveness, but also for strength to avoid sin in the future.
Jesus is the solution to our sin problem.
Jesus paid the price for our sin.
Since that is true there is no reason to hide our sin from God.
Instead of letting sin kill us, let God rescue us!
4. Ask God to reveal your sin to you.
According to society nothing is our fault anymore.
If you are fat it’s McDonald’s fault.
If you fail a class the teacher was unfair.
If you rear end another car, the other person stopped without warning.
We like to see ourselves in the best light:
and sometimes we lie to ourselves and
think we are better than reality proves we are.
Sometimes we are blind to our own sin, and need God to reveal it to us
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
1 John 1:8
Invitation:
Sin separates us from God and brings death
Jesus paid the price for our sin by His Death on the Cross
Burial and Resurrection…
In a way we have been offered a Plea Deal:
The same way courts settle crimes for lesser punishments
This plea deal wipes our sin debt but we have to plead guilty
We have to mourn our sin, and trust God for our Salvation
We have to die to our old self in Baptism and be reborn in Christ
We have to own agree with God that we are a sinner.
“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
Mark 16:16 (NIV)
INVITATION: Salvation is offered to everyone, but you have to make a choice.
God isn’t going to force anyone to follow Him.
JESUS always offers forgiveness of your sin and the gift of Holy Spirit, but you have a vote in the matter.
Jesus died on the cross for your sin.
JESUS has come as close to you as He can without your permission….
- it is up to you to decide if you will
- ACCEPT HIM or REJECT HIM…..
Will you come as we sing this hymn of invitation?
We are singing the song
But Jesus is calling your name...
