Kingdom Living - Those Who are Merciful

Please take your Bible turn back with me to chapter 5 of Matthew's gospel Matthew chapter 5 verse 7 Now of the nine blessing declarations we find ourselves on Number 5 which is right at the halfway mark Matthew chapter 5 verse 7 Now here in chapter 5 or 7 we find ourselves Truthfully in a big transition verse 7 marks a very big transition within this body of teaching the Beatitudes We must understand this transition so that we can make proper application of the teaching.

I think you know my habit by now I try to diligently carefully make application and you need to see this transition the first four Beatitudes speak to how a man must relate to God or present himself to God man must be a humble beggar before God utterly destitute Before God in turn he is in great grief over his personal sin He is mourning for his sin both of these conditions lead him Automatically spiritually to be meek and gentle before God Isn't that what we see in verses 3 to 4 look back in your copy of God's Word?

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn They're mourning for their sin the next logical step in this spiritual work We see that man will become desperately hungry and thirsty for righteousness This righteousness comes from Christ and it is Christ Now notice what's in the text what's in these verses? There is a fulfillment of a promise at the end of verse 6 blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness What does it say for they shall be satisfied or filled?

He will be filled with Christ's righteousness, but that's not enough He will want more and more of Christ more and more of his righteousness. I think you see it Verses 3 to 6 show us how we must relate to God how we present ourselves before God I Know that this is review, but this review helps us see how all of this is connected together verses 3 to 6 Now after this work is done within a man in verse 3 to 6 we see that this affects man's character This affects his inner being he truthfully is radically and totally transformed from the inside out Because of this inner transformation he will begin to relate to others differently Now I thought about a an application that will help you hear an illustration And I want you to listen to your pastor here But I want you to show I want to show you the and I say the word the purposely I want to show you the key to moving on into these verses and what I mean by these verses starting in verse 7 The key because there is one key in my eyes and heart and understanding verse 6 is the key We must hunger and thirst like a perishing man or a perishing woman we are hungering and thirsting for God's righteousness a complete righteousness that we will never attain a perfect righteousness that we can never have outside of Christ a righteousness which can only be found in Christ in from Christ now this is not a list of dos and don'ts this is Relational oh, it's relational knowing Christ more and more He has saved us and we seek Christ's righteousness Because we love Christ and we want more and more of him If that is us if we want more and more of Christ in our lives Then we are able to relate to others according to what we see starting in verse 7 So to me, that's the key hungering and thirsting for Christ I ran across something that really helps me hear The Bible commentator Jim Boyce has a good quotation.

He just puts it a little bit different way and I'm quoting According to the Word of God Christian doctrine must always express itself in a new outlook on life and change behavior what you believe must always affect your conduct So that's what we're seeing here versus three to six form us transform us radically and then naturally it will affect our conduct So let's take a deep breath Take a step back and see this transition and let's expect a new work within us Remember the key we must seek after Christ in his righteousness so that we can embrace this teaching Starting in verse 7.

So let's read our verse together I'm reading of course from the English Standard Version Blessed or the merciful for they shall receive mercy Now I want to share with you our approach to the verse really we're going to have two questions There's a lot that's going to be around these questions first We will examine the meaning of this word this word merciful and then second We will examine the meaning of the phrase that is at the end of the verse for they shall receive Mercy now as our habit we will then reassemble the verse That's our pattern with each of these be attitudes Our order may seem random to some because remember we took this word blessed at the beginning But I believe it is working well for us and one of the men of our church told me this week how this Reassembling has been helpful for him and I believe it's been helpful for you as well So we're going to start off with our first question Number one, what is this word mercy or you can say it like this?

What is this word merciful? What is this word mercy or merciful? Now when I say the word mercy Many of you automatically think of the word grace as well the phrase Mercy and grace is often used in conversation. We hear it song in Christian songs. We've heard it in many sermons It's just a common phrase mercy and grace grace and mercy now It's not bad to use mercy and grace together But we do need to know the difference between the two in some ways mercy and grace can be connected Because both are undeserved, but they are very different Grace is love expressed when love is undeserved Grace is a loving response, but mercy is going further one step further Mercy is love extended to others Mercy is reaching out to others Others may have a need others may be helpless They may be even total misery mercy is reaching out to others Again, I'm quoting Jim Boyce here.

He says mercy identifies I like that word Identifies with the miserable miserable in their misery and I'm adding to what he says and mercy does something about that misery Now let me put his quote in my quote together Mercy identifies with the miserable in their misery and mercy does something about that misery So grace is undeserved love which is expressed Mercy is love that love reaching out to the one that is in need they may be helpless They even they may even be in total misery Mercy is doing something about that need how in love So it is easy to see why grace and mercy are connected We need to see the difference, but we must see that they are connected now Let me help you hear a couple of questions that I want you to ponder with me to show you how they are connected and here are my questions What good does it do if I love someone in need yet?

I do not do something about that need I Must I may say gracious and loving words, but I stop there I do not reach out to identify with them and help the one that is in need. What good is that? I'm borrowing some words from James here if faith without works is dead then I can say love without mercy Is mere words you see where I'm going?

They're connected Now there's more that we need to see here The meaning the actual meaning of the word here in the text is closely connected with the Jewish meaning and understanding of the word Remember the context Jesus is a Jew primarily he's teaching to a Jewish audience So there's always the Jewish background The commentators say that the Old Testament word for mercy is extremely difficult to translate some even say it's impossible To translate into our English But I will give it a shot based on some information that I've acquired this weekend study This word in the Old Testament it means to sympathize, but it's more it means to feel sorry for someone in trouble But it's even more than that again I'm borrowing from another Bible commentator that helps me here William Barclay says and I'm quoting it means the ability to get right inside the other person's skin Until we see things with his eyes think things with his mind and feel things with his feelings I like that.

Let me repeat it because we need to get it it means and I'm quoting It means the ability to get right inside the other person's skin until we see things with his eyes Think things with his mind and feel things with his feelings Oh, but there's even more because this is not just a mere flash of emotions It is it is an intentional identification with effort with that person until we think as they do concerning their their need until we feel as they do Until we see as they do now this mercy and I'm going to use this word sympathy. It means Experiencing things together.

We are going through what they are going through as best we can again I'm borrowing some words from William Barclay here because commentators can help us especially with a difficult word He goes on to say and I'm quoting Most people are so concerned with their own feelings that they are not much concerned with the feelings of anyone else When they are sorry for someone it is as it were from the outside They do not make the deliberate effort to get inside the other person's mind in heart Until they feel the things as he sees and feels them Now again, it's difficult to grasp this I'm going to give us a couple of illustrations here that might help us I remember years ago I I went to church with a lady that some people in our community may know her name is Martha Lofton and I'll never forget miss Martha and her husband.

They had a terrible tragedy in their family for miss Martha's husband Tragically and accidentally ran over his own grandson. It was a horrible accident But I watched miss Martha in the years that I was close to her when anyone in the community had a tragedy They lost a mother or a father or maybe a son or a daughter I would watch that quiet lady ease over to that person in need and they were able to she was able to express Mercy why because she knew how they felt she knew how they thought she understood what was going on in their mind She could get into their skin and feel the way they felt and she expressed mercy in circumstance after circumstance after circumstance One interesting character from church history that many of us need to study Is a very interesting family during World War two.

This is the tin boom family. They were Dutch When the Germans overran Europe and overran their country Corey tin boom and her sister and her father and her family they did what many Christians did they would a high Jews from the Germans and Ultimately, they were called and they were arrested and Corey tin boom ended up in a concentration camp She lost all of her family, but what did she do?

God used that tragic event those tragic events and she was able to show mercy She was able to identify with the suffering and I heard Testimonies of men and ministers who knew her and they said you could be in a circumstance where someone was suffering and they could be Ministers all in that room, but when she walked in the room She had a quiet authority because she could identify with the circumstance better than them And I even heard a minister say that every minister would close their mouth in respect because she walked in the door She could get in their skin.

She knew how they thought she knew how they felt She knew what was going on in their mind. That is being merciful Now what I have given you is more or less the definition of the word mercy I Know it is closely connected to grace But I believe we have a little bit of a grip on the meaning of the word now I want to I want to move into some biblical examples that will help us see Mercy and of course this will shed some light on grace as well now if you like me you like examples I like to see an example if I buy a new barbecue grill, I do not want to follow the directions I just want to look at the picture Sometimes the picture helps and sometimes it does not Now the first example is the best example now the reason I say it's the best example because there's no better It is the purest example and it is the purest example because there is no sin involved or shortcoming involved It's the greatest example because it was for the whole world to see now I'm talking about the example of Christ dying on the cross Now with the cross grace was expressed But we must go back in time Grace was expressed all throughout the Old Testament through the many prophecies concerning the Messiah in Every prophecy God himself was declaring and I state that again He was declaring his love for sinful humanity There were these were generations of grace but in Jesus we see God's mercy Christ Jesus became a man.

He lived 30 plus years on earth and ultimately he died on the cross now get this Through Christ the Son God the Father extended his mercy to sinful humanity All this is grace and mercy grace was expressed mercy was extended on the cross God is expressing his love and grace to lost humanity through the cross God is extending mercy and grace to Humanity man does not deserve grace and mercy man is sinful He is deserving of death and truthfully eternal damnation He is deserving of the wrath of God for his sin and rebellion against God So man is helpless man is in need he is in misery because of his great sin and rebellion against God Oh, but there's a beautiful word here the word but but God Think about that but God God the Father God had mercy on man God through Christ and I'm going back in barring Barclays words God through Christ got right into man's skin Christ saw humanity through human eyes He thought as a man thought he felt as a man felt yet He did not see him because he was the God man and then he died in man's place The just for the unjust the one who knew no sin became sin And this is the best this is the purest and this is the greatest expression of mercy ever There will never be a better example.

So the cross is the best example because it cannot be eclipsed The cross is the purest example because of its perfection and the cross is the greatest example because it was for the world to see Now I want to transition to some other examples and these examples come from the life and the ministry of Jesus truthfully They're too many to list but all throughout Jesus ministry He was showing mercy to the needy to the helpless and to the miserable now I'm not referring to the act of mercy when he forgives a sinner.

That's not what I'm referring to I'm speaking of meeting a great physical need now Let me give you a few examples in John chapter 4 Jesus healed the nobleman son He healed the bot the boy just by word. He never visited him nor did he put his hands on him That's mercy in John chapter 6 Jesus healed the cripple who was by the pool of Bethsaida He had been crippled for for over 30 years But when Jesus told him to take up his mat and walk he was healed. That's mercy Jesus fed the hungry all throughout his ministry. He healed the lame. He gave sight to the blind He cast the demons out of the oppressed. He even raised the dead. Why?

Why did he do this? He did all of those acts out of mercy from a loving heart for the needy and the miserable He did much more than I have time to share and I think you get the idea Jesus was constantly all throughout his earthly ministry Performing deeds of mercy deeds of mercy for the needy for the hurting for the miserable. This is mercy So what do we see here with this word mercy is truthfully a lot?

Grace is undeserved love and then mercy is an undeserved expression of that love Mercy is love reaching out to the one that's in need They may be helpless and in misery So mercy mercy does something about that need the cross is the greatest example of grace and mercy God has sympathy for mankind through Christ the Son God got into man's skin He came to man as a man in every way except for sin He did not know sin, but he became sin for man And he came to man in his greatest need and that was providing forgiveness for sin But also also Christ showed mercy to man in meeting all types of needs for the helpless For the sick for the miserable He met all types of needs and these acts of mercy were also performed out of what a heart of love But I want to take a step back here and I want us to see some connections I Want you to make some connections here with some words?

Let me explain Mercy this word mercy this mercy it is connected to grace Mercy is also connected to forgiveness of sin We see that in the merciful cross Mercy is also connected to acts of kindness Demonstrated towards mankind so we have grace connected to mercy and we have grace and mercy connected to forgiveness and grace and mercy and forgiveness Connected to acts of mercy by lovingly meeting the needs of the hurting. I think you get that in Many instances we see Jesus.

He shows acts of kindness and He forgives therefore showing both types of mercy in John 9 Jesus healed a man who was born blind and that was a great gift of mercy was that not healing the man But later on he forgave his sin and that is an act of mercy Now I want you to hold on to some words here I'm going to give you a couple of words in some phrases Maybe you write these down in your notes because we're going to reach back to these words and phrases and application the first word is grace Write down the word grace then write down the word mercy.

I think you probably assume that grace And then mercy then the phrase grace and mercy why because we see that they are connected They're different, but yet they're connected and then flowing out of that write down the word forgiveness The cross is the greatest example of mercy by providing forgiveness for man's sin And then the next phrase is acts of mercy. We understand Jesus performed all types of acts of mercy and Then the phrase grace in action. I haven't used that yet, but I will the word or the phrase the phrase grace in action So let's move on in our outline. I want us to see number two Truth number two.

What is this phrase for they shall receive mercy? What is this phrase For they shall receive mercy now, let's look back at our verse verse seven Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive Mercy now in examining this phrase. I want to show you what it's not a lot of times I have to do that we need to see what it's not and then we will see what it is there can be a few Misunderstandings here and this will help us First what it is not What it is not?

For some they struggle with what they see as an earned mercy from God Some seem to think this verse is teaching that receiving God's mercy Depends on mankind showing mercy to others this interpretation Contradicts grace we can never contradict grace here We do not earn anything a man will never earn mercy as a gift So it is not earning mercy from God that is a mistake that our Catholic friends make They have a horrible doctrine when it comes to this This teaching of mercy and then there are some They see this as earned mercy from man. They see this as earning mercy from man Whereas some acts of mercy may earn mercy from mankind.

There's no guarantee We've got to remember man is sinful man does not always respond to acts of mercy as they should Now think about it our greatest example Jesus Jesus was the most merciful man to walk the face of the earth. He was the God man meaning that he was perfect He never performed an act of mercy for an impure reason or with an impure motive He was always self selfless and every act of mercy But how did humanity treat Jesus? Ultimately, they crucified Jesus.

We not only see this in the life of Jesus, but in the lives of his disciples They were also rejected by many they perform great acts of mercy through miracles and preaching the gospel Yeah, they did not always receive mercy. They were rejected and they suffered So mercy is not a guarantee for a mercy in return from mankind Some make this mistake and they are terribly disappointed when they do not receive mercy from others So we have explored what it is not it's not earned and it's not a guarantee of Mercy from man and then second what it is What is this receiving mercy?

We must see that mercy is a gift, but it is excluded It is excluded from those who do not give it now There is a continuous theme within the Bible that God does choose to grant certain blessings Upon man when they are obedient. Let me show you what I mean in Matthew 18 verse 35 we see that man cannot be forgiven unless he forgives in the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6 The man is forgiven when he forgives man is not earning forgiveness But forgiveness is granted when he demonstrates a forgiving heart and it is the same with mercy Man can receive mercy only when he is merciful.

It is not earned No, it is a gift from God, but yet it is conditional So what do we see here? Mercy is not earned from God and it is no guarantee from man Mercy is a work of God for his people who demonstrate mercy to others They graciously love others and they demonstrate that love by acts of mercy They meet the needs of others.

They help the hurting they love and they help the miserable Undeserved love is expressed and undeserved mercy is expressed through deeds Then according to God's love he bestows mercy upon his people This is a promise much like we see at the end of verse 6 Go back to verse 6 with me blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness For for they shall be filled or satisfied and then verse 7 blessed are the merciful for they shall receive Mercy, this is a gift and it is a gift from God to his people who show mercy Now as you can tell I have saved my application for the end of the message Sometimes it just works out that way from me It's not always planned and I'm not sure if that's better for you or better for me But that's just kind of the way it works out and that's the way this message developed for me Now I want to take some time an application and I want to apply what we've learned here What we've examined and studied in three areas of our lives now This is only for born-again people if you're not born again, you will be excluded I hate to say that because these are spiritual works And if you're not born again, you cannot do these things.

So the first area of life First we are called to show mercy to the lost. Let me repeat that as born-again people We are called to show mercy to the lost the loss that our Lord brings Into our life now remember what we learned earlier and I'm repeating Grace is love expressed when love is undeserved Grace is a loving response. But remember mercy goes father. It goes one step further Mercy is love Extended to others mercy is reaching out to others.

They may have a need they may be helpless They may be in total misery and listen folks lost people have a great need They are helpless they are helpless in their sin and their rebellion against God and no matter how they feel They are in misery total misery and we must express love to lost sinners and then extend Mercy to them mercy to them mercy to them not by acts of kindness No, that's not what I'm talking about not by acts of kindness But through that word that I ask you to remember earlier remember the word forgiveness We do not hold their sin against them No We forgive them and we offer Christ to them who can forgive them now There are two more words that I want you to write down here this word sympathy and pride We have compassion and we have sympathy on lost sinners because we see ourselves in them We're in their skin.

We are walking around in their lives. We have sympathy for them We can get into their skin. We can think as they do we can see as they do we can understand Because we were just like them. We were lost sinners and God saved us We have sympathy for them. We have compassion a sympathy and compassion that comes from God. Oh But then that word pride Some pridefully disdain lost sinners because they have never been forgiven Let me repeat that there's some they disdain lost sinners because they have never been forgiven Oh, they're just like the Pharisee in Luke chapter 18 They gloat in their self-righteousness and they look down their nose and condemn lost sinners that Pharisee and Luke 18 He seemed to be pointing at that tax collector in pride and in self-righteousness and in religion And what does he do?

He points at the sinner and says to God I'm glad I'm not like him and all along he was worse off Why because he was in his pride and he was in his sin And so my question for you is this do you have sympathy for lost sinners or do you look at them with pride? a sympathy that comes from God a Compassion whereby you see them exactly the way you were you look at them with tears and you say I was just like you Oh, I used to act just like you I used to talk just like you I know how you think I know how you feel I know how you understand life why because God saved me Bar a little phrase here.

I want to borrow this phrase from the Bible commentator D.A Carson. He says the true Christians here Right in this they're at the midway point Think about that with me. They are at the midway point and let me go on and quote him. He elaborates that He and I'm quoting he is to forgive others because in the past Christ has already forgiven him simultaneously he recognizes his constant need for more forgiveness and Becomes forgiving as a result of this perspective as well the Christian forgives because he is forgiven He forgives because he needs forgiveness see we're at the midway point We're between our Savior and that lost sinner.

We are in their skin We know how they think we know how they feel we know why they say what they say and do what they say and we have sympathy and compassion but oh my question for you is this do you have sympathy and Compassion for the loss or do you look at them in pride? I have seen so many religious people look at law centers And they condemn them in their self-righteous arrogant attitude that all comes from pride And then the second area of life We are called to show mercy to God's people God's people brothers and sisters in Christ those in the church Now I have not mentioned this so far But we are to show love and mercy to the brethren our brothers and sisters within the church Now Jesus addressed this when he was preparing his disciples for the cross He was about to leave them in John chapter 13 Specifically verse 34 to 35.

What does Jesus say? He's talking to his disciples a new commandment I give you that you love one another just as I have loved you. Oh, what a love Jesus was about to give his life of them and he says you love each other the way I am Loving you and then he goes on to say by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have Love for one another and listen folks if we have this true love for each other We will be compelled to express that love through acts of mercy Remember what I have said several times Mercy is love extended to others. Mercy is reaching out to others.

They may have a need they may even be helpless They can be in total misery and this applies to brothers and sisters in Christ and we are compelled to act in mercy For our brother and our sister. Maybe their children. Maybe their family. They have a need they have a need They need help. Maybe they are even in misery And so my question for you is this do you relate to the brothers and sisters this way?

Christ and mercy not just words, but you you put feet to those words you put hands to those words One of the most natural and Spontaneous reactions of the true Christian is to show mercy to fellow brothers and sisters There is a heavenly love for one another and it even goes beyond a love that we have for earthly relationships. Is that you? Do you love brothers and sisters this way if you do not my friend there might be something wrong with you and then third This third area of life.

We are called to show mercy to the hurting that are around us Yes, the people of the world We are called to show mercy to those who are around us in our world Now I am not advocating a social gospel here. Oh, there's some that just take this and they just run off the rails with it That's not what I'm advocating But we do meet needs from a heart of love and hands of mercy to those around us Let me give you some hypotheticals. We may have a lost neighbor and he has need after need She has need after need. What do we do?

We meet those needs out of grace and love and out of mercy why because we want to love them and show the gospel To them and we do that through mercy by meeting needs We may have a co-worker who is in need someone in our community might have a great need Occasionally in the community there can be a tragic accident or terrible sickness or a house fire or something like that And Christians will come to that individual whether they're a Christian or not and they begin to meet those needs Those are acts of mercy and see this is where the Spirit of God works within us to lead us We're prompted and we're compelled and you know, we tell our husband or our wife.

I need to go meet that need I need to go help the miserable. I need to go meet that need in their life And we lovingly meet needs with hands of mercy in the lives of the helpless and hurting and the miserable And we always do this with an ulterior motive Because we want to share Christ We don't want to just meet the physical need in that what Jesus did He met all types of physical needs and then ultimately he would offer forgiveness And so we're wanting to meet physical needs so as to meet the spiritual needs which is forgiveness and it only comes in Christ But Real quickly I want to share with you two traps two errors two extremes here don't fall into these The first trap is pride self-righteousness You need theology any belief any conviction that leads you to pride and self-righteousness And leads you to look down your nose at sinners Listen, that's the trap of Phariseeism and that's what we saw in Luke chapter 18 He did it alright on the externals, but he looked down on the lost sinner And he did not have the heart and the mind of Christ and what did he do with one hand?

He's pointing out the sinner and he's looking up to heaven and he's saying God. I'm so glad I'm not like him Listen people do not fall into the trap of pride and Self-righteousness and there are people who come along and they will seemingly have these high standards They will seemingly have these reasons but you cut through the words and you look at the motives and you look at how they relate to lost people Don't fall into the trap of pride and self-righteousness Don't fall into the trap of being so called so godly that you can't touch a lost sinner Jesus didn't and the second trap And that is thinking you can meet every need Oh Every now and then somebody comes along and their heart is just too big and they think they can meet every knee You can't do that.

You just can't do that There are certain needs you can meet but you can't sacrifice everything you are and everything that you will be to meet every need That will come along. There's a word here. I haven't asked you to write this word down. It's called balance Balance and God can help us as we mature to have balance Now I want to reassemble our verse this beatitude verse 7 Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. This is really a short beatitude nine words in the English Standard Version Now again, this is a little bit of mine and quite a few other Bible commentators It gets to the point where it's all mixed together.

I always like to give credit where credit is due But this is how it's really come to to be in my mind and my heart and I'm reassembling The verse as we've broken it down All the joy. Oh, I like that. Oh The joy this inner joy and happiness of the one who gets inside the skin and life of other people He sees as they see he thinks as they think he feels the way they feel He understands the way they understand he seeks to offer them the gospel for forgiveness of sin He seeks to meet needs in their lives as he can The one who does this will at times find others doing the very same thing for them And they will also find God doing the same for them According to his will and his plan for their life.

Oh the inner joy and happiness For those who show mercy what for theirs is the kingdom of God? You see that? Now this just leads me to the title of our message. I think it's obvious The title is simple but with all of that that is said this title is just so powerful This is kingdom living living in the kingdom. We're born of God This is the way the king wants us to live as we possess the kingdom and live in the kingdom And what does he say blessed of those who are merciful and we are to be a merciful people Now you see the transition this goes from how we relate to God to how we relate to others And you know I borrow one little phrase I'll go back to what Jesus said in John chapter 13 now.

I'm paraphrasing, but what did he say to his disciples? said all friends if you love the way I love you if you love each other the way I have loved you the Lost world will know you are mine And I will borrow that and I'll say to you church if you show mercy If you go out and allow God to show you show mercy to lost sinners and brothers and sisters Then the lost world and brothers and sisters will know you're in the kingdom Because only kingdom living only those in the kingdom can truly do this work Blessed of the merciful for they shall receive Mercy, let's pray