God loves you. I know you may hear it a lot, but I want you to hear it again this morning –God loves you! I know, I preach on it often. But can we hear it enough? I know I can’t. So, let’s stop for a moment and grasp the significance of that simple statement. Let’s not muddy it with a lot of “ifs ands or buts,” let’s just let that simple fact sink in for a moment –God loves you.
The incredible, indescribable, unimaginable, creator of the universe who knows every mountain, every star, who calls the seasons into being, who formed the earth with a word and with his own breath, breathed life into us. This God, this awesome, uncontainable God wants us to hear one simple, profound, deep, moving truth –He loves us.
In spite of our failures, our rebellion, our pride our selfishness, our sin, our darkness, our fallen-ness, our shortcomings, our rejection of him, our not listening, our stubbornness God loves us. He is the everlasting God, the immortal, invisible, God only wise who has this unending capacity to love us!
Yes, I know it up here –I understand it in an intellectual way, but I still have a hard time grasping it and even accepting it. I have been married to Jodi for almost 29 years. And there are still times I look at her and wonder why she loves me. Oh, I have it up here, in my head –I hear her say the words, but still in the core of my being I wonder why –how!
Why, because I know me! Plain and simple, I know me. I know my short comings, my failures, my thoughts. I know my past, my wayward thinking, my heart. I know me! And wonder how she could love me.
I look at this incredible God, who made everything out of nothing –imagine in just 6 days by simple spoken words all came into being! I have enough difficulty making a simple bird feeder with complete instructions, all supplies included and still after only, what 8 years I have opened the box! Yet this God, this incredible, God has an unfailing love for me! And I wonder why-how!
Why, because I know me! Plain and simple, I know me. I know my short comings, my failures, my thoughts. I know my past, my wayward thinking, my heart. I know me! And I wonder how he could love me. And the added dimension to my relationship with God is –He knows me too! Oh, I can hide some stuff from Jodi, I can mask some things and keep some things from her –but not from God. And still, in spite of that, in spite of me knowing me and Him knowing me He loves me! Although we are looking at the Sermon on the mount this morning, I would like for us to read a pray that I pray for us today –for me today.
Let us stand and read together from Ephesians 3.
God in this incredible love, wants us to know about it –to know Him. But we are separated from him. Jesus says it this way, I have come to seek and to save that which is lost (Luke 19:10). Jesus earlier gave several parables about lostness- the lost coin, the lost sheep, even the lost son. We are lost-separate from God. And yet the message comes to us –I love you. In a whisper in the wind, in the bold shaking of life, the message rings through to us –God loves us.
In the face of this highest, deepest, longest, widest love, I see my own unworthiness. Who am I, that He should love me? Like the prodigal son one who was lost, comes and stands before his father and admits –I am unworthy! This is something that Jesus describes in Matthew 5:3 as poor in spirit. To see myself as, to admit that I am, unworthy. We looked at this last week in some detail, but let me reminds us that this is the beginning, the foundation of understanding the rest of the beatitudes, the whole of the sermon on the mount, even why Jesus came and died on the cross.
Simple fact is, as unpalatable as it may be, we are not worthy of God’s love. There is nothing we can do, say, inherit, that makes us worthy. Unless and until we come to that –that we are spiritually destitute, lost and apart from God, that we are poor in spirit, we cannot begin the journey towards the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. And yet, AND YET, He does –he loves me! And because he loves me he has given me –given us the path to not only know that love, but to grow in it and experience it in a profound, deep and lasting way. A path, a way, to get closer to Him, to make our way to Him.
Blessed are the poor in spirit –blessed are those who are spiritually destitute and know they are –for theirs is the kingdom of God. It is at this point, this realization that we are spiritually separate from God, lost and apart from him, that we begin to experience the reality of and the power of these words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.”
Jesus continues to point the road forward, to encourage us in the journey to discovering the power of God’s love and the strength of His presence. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
Often I have heard this used in funerals and to comfort those who have lost a friend or loved one. Although God does comfort us and is with us in those times, this verse is speaking to something quite different.
It is taken together with the first beatitude. Here the word used for mourn is more of a broken –heartedness over our lostness, our sin -like remorse and is tied with repentance. What Jesus is saying here is that when we see that we are totally destitute, we also see the condition that brought us to that destitution -SIN. It is sin that separates us from God, sin that causes our lostness, sin that is the stuff of our unworthiness. In seeing that SIN we are remorseful, we are mourning over our sinful condition.
Sin is ugly, it is detested by God and should be detested by the Christian. Paul again reflects this in his writings, and in his own life when he says, "I do what I should not do and I do not do what I should. O what a wretched man am I." David in Psalm 51 cries before the Lord in anguish over the sin in His life and seeks forgiveness. These men mourn because they see that sin is death and death is separation from God and they mourn.
There is also the idea of mourning for the sins you see around you. Looking at the pain that sin causes in the world and in the lives of people. Seeing the pain and the anguish of those who suffer under evil. Having a brokenness and mourning for the people who are lost in darkness and sin. Crying out and weeping as Jesus did when he looked at Jerusalem and cried "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem (Mat. 23:37,ff).
But in this sorrow we can be comforted and will be comforted, because in this we also find forgiveness for our sins. Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and all who bring their sins to him, seek forgiveness find comfort. What a great thing this love –what a great thing this forgiveness! Reminded of this in the Restore seminar held at Lakeside this past weekend. In forgiveness we experience the grace of God, the mercy of God, the strength of God, the empowerment of God, the sanctifying work of God –we experience comfort in knowing that in spite of our sin, we are forgiven! What great comfort we have in forgiveness –that our sins are not held against us, that they are taken because of Jesus and cast away –as far as the east from the west. Blessed, oh Blessed are they that cry over their sin, for they shall find forgiveness and be comforted.
When we recognize our lostness, our separation from God and cry out to God –“I am sorry –forgive me” we shall be comforted. And this is an important part of our journey towards God. We may be able to see our separation from God but not have a regret over it. I know many people who know they are far from God, separate from him –they know they are lost, BUT they don’t mind –for now. For whatever reason they have not seen the horror of their sin, the condition of their soul. They think there is time, that God would –in the balance of tings, let them into his kingdom.
I had one man tell me, “Yeah, I know I am separated from God. That’s okay, I’ll make my way there somehow.” Let the words of Jesus sink in, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one gets to the father but by me.” And in that we need to some to the pace of seeing our sin and the ugliness of it, and sorrow over it because it is what Jesus took, why Jesus died, what Jesus did, what separated Him from the Father.
Blessed are those who mourn –for they shall be comforted –blessed are those who sorrow over their sin, for they shall find forgiveness. The prodigal son saw his lostness, came back in sorrow and was welcomed with open arms –blessed is he!
Blessed are the meek...The third beatitude that we will look at this morning is perhaps the most misunderstood of all. Many have interpreted it as being weak, milquetoast, or cowardly. But that is far from the meaning. Again we must take this in context with the previous two verses. The first beatitude says blessed are they that are spiritually destitute, the second, blessed are they that are broken over their sin. The third brings out the idea of being under God's control.
The picture here is one of a horse that is bridled and under the control of the master. When we see ourselves as spiritually destitute, as regretful of our sins, we place ourselves completely under God's control. By placing of ourselves completely under God's control we open ourselves up to His love His wisdom, His strength, and power. God, give us His Spirit, who is our guide. We need to put our trust in him, to submit, to be meek.
Another way of understanding the word is the idea of humility. This is the proper attitude towards oneself and to God. Humility is not the same as humble. Humble is a respect of others as being better than oneself, not self seeking. A humble man can be rich or poor, intelligent or average, yet he looks to the needs of others.
Humility is when a person knows their own limits, their own ignorance and weaknesses, and their own need. I need help, I need to have your help to guide me towards you, to be on track. There are a couple of shows that Jodi and I like to watch. One I don’t vouch for the language or arrogance, but it is Chef Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmare’s and another that I do recommend to any and everyone –especially new or young married’s, Till Debt do us part with Gail Vaz-Oxly. In both shows both Ramsey and Vaz-Oxly insist that the people follow their instructions –“do whatever I say”–if they don’t they are headed for disaster. Jesus calls u to “do whatever he says –to submit –to be humble –to be meek! We have the power to do it, we just need the guidance to do it right! Meekness, coupled with lostness and sorrow puts us in the master’s hand to guide us closer to God.
One writer states that without humility there can be no true religion, for all true religion begins with the realization of our own weakness and of our own need for God. (William Barclay)
Blessed is the man who has the humility to know his own ignorance, weakness and need in God.
Although these and the rest of the beatitudes are somewhat progressive –they each build off the others, they are also continual. We must continually see ourselves as spiritual paupers before God –only in this will he fill us. We must continually feel the guilt of sin, because we continually sin and fall short –only in this will we find forgiveness and restoration. We must continually humble ourselves before God and place ourselves under His control –only in this will we find strength and power to live the life He has planned and to live it in excellence.
If we do not, we end up like the Pharisees, one of the main groups he addressed –the ones he talks about later in this sermon in chapter 6 (read vss 1-2, 5, 16).
Oh beloved, let our eyes see, our ear hear and our hearts receive what God calls to us.
Hear today the voice of God who says, I love you and want you to experience my kingdom. Hear His voice –blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are they who mourn, blessed are the meek.
Each of the three beatitudes that we have looked at today are a realistic examination of ourselves before God.
-the poor in spirit is the realization of one’s own spiritual poverty (I am Lost)
-those who mourn are they that see their sin and cry out to God (I am sorry)
-those who are meek see that they are in deep need of God and His power (I am Yours)
All three speak to us today. They do not describe three different people, but the same person. They describe you and I. When we see ourselves as poor in spirit, as mourning over our sins, as meek then we will be blessed. And that greatest blessing is Jesus Christ in whom we have heaven, comfort, and joy.
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