Happy Are The Merciful
Matthew 5:7
Contents
1. Jesus message concerned the Kingdom of God.
The blue print, manifesto of the spiritual attitudes of those who would make up the Kingdom of God.
2. He was not saying: Do these things and merit heaven. He was saying, if you believe and God saves you, this will mark your life. This will be the principle you live by.
3. There is a two fold message or pattern to each B-Attitude.
To be saved you must seek mercy. After you are saved you will show mercy to others.
4. Jesus was rebuking the superficial and external religious. Those who outwardly made a show of religion. Matt. 23:27, He called them hypocrites, whited sepulchres, beautiful on the outside, but inside full of dead men's bones and uncleanness. John the Baptist, called some of those who came to be baptised, a generatio of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore, fruits befitting of repentance." (Matt.3:7-8)
5 You see what matters is what is on the inside. You can put on an act, a show or outward appearance.
But it is still just a show.
Like the people I saw, caught up in a soap opera. Acted like it was real...but it wasn't. Emotional and concerned as they were, it was still not real.
6. Jesus in the first four B-Attitudes, is saying you must be broken in spirit, mournful, meek, hungry for righteousness, merciful pure in heart and peaceable. All these are internal qualities. Christ is concerned with what produces our behaviour. It is worthless, to put on a show of righteous acts if you do them for the wrong reasons. Singing, hold a position or office in church. To do it for person recognition is a sorry motive.
To do it to serve others and serve our Saviour, is a correct motive. Only what is done for the Lord, will last. The best we can do without God, is worthless.
Like a church treasurer in a church I knew back East.
Full of Pride.
Questioned every dime spend. Gave everyone a hard time.
Treated people like they were out to steal money from the church. Acted put out when asked to write a check. His heart was not right.
Why did he bother to do the job???
The church for some can be a stage to parade on, to show off, to be praised.
7. The B-Attitudes address our hearts. It calls to question why we do what we do.
Lloyd-Jones: "We are not meant to control our Christianity: our Christianity is rather meant to control us. In the OT, God was not interested in the blood of bull and goats of sacrifices. (Heb. 10:4-6) He is not interested likewise in religious activity He ones heart is not right.
8. "You need to be spiritually bankrupt, you need to recognise that your are destitute beggar who have nothing to offer God. Your hope is to see your true condition and reach our your hand as a beggar who can't do anything to help himself"
It is not normal humanly to seek to feel like this. We are repealed at the thought of considering ourselves as beggars. Of having needs we can not fill without help. Many close their minds to such thoughts and miss the founding principles on which God is building His kingdom. You see this is reality! This is the raw truth. This exposes hypocrisy, strips away the mask we wear
I. What is Mercy?
A. False worldly view: If you are good to others they will be good to you. Shakespeares thoughts. Mercy is the most becoming thing a king can wear.
Mercy can be humanistic: Like the rich, look down on the poor, and say you poor things, you can do for yourself, so I who am so much better, will reach down and help you....now kiss my feet.
B. False religious view: If I do this for God, He will do something for me. If you are good to God he will be good to you. It is wishful thinking to believe that because you show mercy, others will be merciful to you.
C. Greek word for mercy is eleemones. It is used only twice in the New Testament Heb. 2:17, Wherefore, in all things it behoved Him to be made like His brethren, that He might be merciful and faithful High Priest. The illustration is that Christ intercedes for us. That is His mercy. It means to succour the afflicted, to give help to the needy, to rescue the miserable. Basically: To show mercy it to benefit someone else.
James 2:15-17. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, by ye warmed and filled notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."
More that feeling pity, concern or sympathy. It is putting concern into action. What is the worth of pity? If it does not produce some action of benefit? Like faith w/o works it is dead. Dead people have all the organs, all their body...yet dead people do nothing. Their spirit is not there, they have no life. Where there is life, there will be action. Where there is a true spirit of mercy within a person there will be a showing of mercy....a benefit to the person.
II. How is Mercy Shown
A. Mercy meets the need of another. It is not an act of merit. You do not ask the person who receives the benefit to deserve it.Whether they deserve it or not is not in the picture.
B. Also not in the picture is personal benefit.
1. Mercy is not, I give to the poor and I get in return a plague to hang on the wall, that says what a great thing I did a letter of recognition.
2. I have been in offices where the person had a picture of themselves with a well known person. Like the president. Sometimes it is a letter. They got it by giving money to their campaign.
C. Luke 10:30-35. The Good Samaritan. He felt mercy and compassion in his heart.
He did not judge the Jew. (He knew the Jews hated the Samaritans) He bound his wounds, poured oil on them, took him to an inn and paid for his room, offering further to take on the total expense what ever it was. Mercy benefits another. It is not the product of a religious duty or doing something because it is ones duty. Duty could possibly make a person do something they really did not have their heart in.
D. Biblical mercy comes from a attitude of the heart. True Mercy, comes when one realises the mercy that God wants to show to us. True mercy, comes from one who has been shown mercy, and understands what it means to be destitute. Those that understand need can best, meet the need in others. Christ died for the sinner. It was an act of mercy. Helping one who could not help his self. The one who truly receives the mercy of Christ, then, understands. You see they know what it means to be in sin and under its penalty. They have experienced Gods loving mercy, so they in turn extent mercy to others.
E. Mercy forgives, it holds no grudge. It requires no response in return. It seeks the benefit of others. It will not attempt to destroy others with ugly words. The person who is merciful, wants to build up the other person, not tear them down. The merciful guard their tongue, guard their actions. (It is an act of mercy, of being a benefit to others to be faithful to the meeting of ones church, to give financially, to serve faithfully?) It benefits others.
Conclusion:
For the Christian: True mercy, comes from God. Only mercy that comes from God, is lasting and honours God.
1 Cor. 10:33 "Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved." A Christian should reflect the mercy that God has shown them in all they do. For the lost man: In Matt. 18, Christ told of a man who was forgiven of a great debt, by a king he owned money too. The servant who was forgiven later put a person in jail because they owed him some small among of money. Folks the person who had the debt paid for never benefited from it. It did not change them.
You can not be saved by being merciful or doing merciful deeds. Monasteries grew out of this false idea that you could and so have many demonations of churches. Christ has paid your sin debt. He wants to forgive you. Yet, you must let Him.
You must be humble enough to accept the truth, that you are a sinner and destitute. You then must reach out and let Christ save you. You can do that now in the quietness and privacy of your own heart. Then you need to publicly proclaim that you are now Gods. You have received his mercy.