Blessed are the Meek
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The Blessed Life
The Blessed Life
Good Evening, well we continue tonight in our study of the beatitudes, in our study of we have the Lord Jesus preaching His first sermon of His 3 1/2 year ministry. He is sitting on the the mountain teaching His followers about having a life the god calls blessed. We have noticed and continue to notice how this is a road map for anyone who desires to be blessed by the hand of the Lord with his tangible presence in their life.
If a person desires God’s presence, and His blessing upon their life then they must come to a place of sincere humility, Jesus names this humility “poor in spirit” a person must come to this place of utter emptiness where they realize that there is nothing positive they could offer up to God in their own strength, that they are bankrupt before him. Jesus tells us that “theirs IS the Kingdom of Heaven” that when we come to this place of being poor in Spirit it is only then that we can come to true repentance which leads to salvation, but even more than that; when we learn to live in this reality that we can have a little bit of Heaven on Earth, we experience this because as we remain poor in spirit the Lord Jesus Christ in the person of His Holy Spirit walks closely in sweet fellowship with us.
Yet as the Lord reveals how bankrupt we are before him, as He humbles us there is a Spiritual mourning that occurs. We see God’s standard and we see how we have failed God and we hurt and are burdened within desiring to give Him more than we are currently giving Him. IF we love Jesus we are hurting within because as followers of Jesus we want to glorify Him in every way. But Jesus tells us that this type of spiritual mourning is healthy and that we will be comforted.
Tonight we come to the last root in the tree of a blessed life
Blessed are the Meek
Blessed are the Meek
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Matthew 5:
What is Christ calling us to?
How can we pursue what Christ is calling us to?
What is Christ Calling Us to?
What is Christ Calling Us to?
What is Christ calling us to when He says blessed is the meek?
What comes to your mind when you hear the word meek? Is it a person who is soft spoken, maybe a person with a limp handshake? A person who is easily pushed over and seem to have very little backbone?
MEEKNESS IS NOT WEAKNESS
Jesus Christ was meek, but Jesus was not weak.... AT ALL. Yet we have this idea that somehow meekness is some sort of mildness, and for men and women who are bold this doesn’t sound like something that we want to go after. But we have been discovering that each of these beatitudes is a fountain of blessing. That He is telling us that these beatitudes should run after and get no matter what it may cost us!
He is telling us one of them is meekness...
We need to do a sort of resetting of the mind when we think about what Jesus is referring to in this passage. This is one of the hardest things in all of the Christian life to attain, it is only by the working of God’s Spirit within us that we can have this beatitude. Matthew Henry makes a very interesting point about meekness in his book “the quest for meekness and a quiet spirit.”
He says that the latin root for this word meekness is manu assuetes - “used to the hand” it alludes to the taming of wild creatures. Now that sets a new direction for the mind. The Bible speaks about our fallen human nature as having the characteristics of wild animals, for example in the OT you see God referring to His own people and saying they are like wild donkeys, or like a camel wandering around in the desert untamed.
Not very kind description, but you find it in . Now Matthew Henry makes this statement: “ Man’s nature has made him like a wild donkey. But meekness when that gets dominion in the soul … it alters a persons temper, it brings the soul to peace, and it manages itself.
So meekness is how God is going to tame the tempers that are inside you and me. Subdue its wildness and place the troubled heart under proper management.
So meekness is about taming the temper, it is about bringing our temperment under the authority of Christ. It is about the calming of the passions, it is about controlling the impulses of your heart!
You know this week I saw two friends have a discussion, and a debate began about a particular belief. What was on display before me was someone who had learned meekness and another who had not, or at least in that moment slipped. The conversation began as two friends having a conversation and ended with one of the two parties being so angry that he had to walk away.
This is how NOT to display meekness, to be unable to control your temper.
You’re at work and one thing after another is coming down on top of you, you are working hard, and it seems like for every task you finish 3 more get added and your running out of time. Stress fills your heart and you begin to become overwhelmed, there is ALWAYS and i mean ALWAYS a moment in time, where we can escape.
Where we can choose meekness, and control over anger and chaos. Though our flesh wants to have it’s way we can allow the Holy Spirit to have His way instead and glorify God.
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
Picture a horse that has’t been broken, and it bucks and it kicks, and its out there in the field and when someone gets near to it, it always resists the bit and bridle. It’s not used to the hand.. its tempers have not yet been subdued. But when it gets used to the hand, well then it has a poise. It begins to listen to its masters command.
Then the horse becomes useful, this is what meekness is all about, the animal is at peace and he is altogether different than the wild chaotic dangerous creature he was before.You see what the Bible says in Israel is like a wild donkey, by nature humans are like the unbroken horse. What that means is that we resist the hand of God, and we kick out against Him and as long as we are fighting God there is no peace to be had.
As long as there is no peace within ourselves, the turmoil inside of us is spilling out into others around us, our family, our work, our friends...
I was driving through town this week and as I stopped at a red light I saw a man across the intersection from me, and when he got to the light he knew he was going to miss the light and he began slamming the steering wheel and obviously cussing, i mean he gave that sterring wheel the beating of a lifetime.
He must have been late, maybe everything had gone wrong for him that morning already. Who knows what burdens he was carrying, but the chaos within was pouring out. This is life, without meekness we slide into this inner conflict that starts to show itself in short tempers, outbursts, bitterness, turmoil.
But meekness calms the temper, it brings order out of the chaos.
Once I begin to understand that this is what meekness is, then I begin to realize that this is why Jesus says this is something we should desire and seek after. I must go after this and pray for this in my life and without I will find myself in unending turmoil. So meekness calms the passions, that otherwise will destiny you and others.
“The heart is by nature like a troubled sea, casting forth the foam of anger and wrath. Now meekness calms the passions, it sits as a moderator in the soul, quietly giving check to its dis-tempered motions.”
Spurgeon has 5 words that he used to describe what meekness is to be:
humble,gentle,patient,forgiving, and contented.
It delivers us from: pride,harshness,anger, vengance, and ambition.
want you to see that Jesus is calling us to something absolutely wonderful here. Remember we are taking each of these beatitudes in 2 parts.
WHAT IS CHRIST CALLING US TO?
HOW WE ARE TO PURSUE IT?
How Are We to Pursue It?
How Are We to Pursue It?
Meekness will calm your passions, it will subdue your impulsiveness. it will change the you speak, it will gve you control over that harsh thing you were going to say. Grow in meekness and you will discover contentment. You will be more calm during the difficulties you face daily. Meekness will help you to enjoy peace when there seems to be no peace to be had.
Peace is being used to the hand, the calming of the wild animal so there is a tameness. Another way to understand this is to understand that dirty word submission.
Submission:
Submission:
That you put your mission under (sub) the mission of someone else.
I take the dream of my life, I take the hope of my life, i take the direction of my life, I take the ministry of my life and I say now Lord Jesus Christ everything that I have is yours now you show me where to be and what to do and I will do it to the best of my abilities. It is directed Lord by Your mission not mine.
That’s what Christ calls us to here, and that is what we as Christians are supposed to do, we are to live lives of submission to God. As these people place all things within the hand of God they will see that God places all things back into their hand.
That’s why Jesus says blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth.
WOW
MEEKNESS:
MEEKNESS:
1. Submitting to God’s Word
1. Submitting to God’s Word
This is how you run after meekness.
Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
In other words the evidence of whether a person really submits to God is simply this: that we believe and do what god says. Jesus says it is the person who hears my words and puts it into practice who is like the one who builds his house upon the rock. Guys a church where the Bible is taught clearly and valued highly is the best place to be, because it is through the word of God that we grow.
The church where the Bible is taught and highly valued is a dangerous place to be. Because everyone of us is accountable for the doing of what we have learned from God. No one more so than the one who preaches and teaches. How do we receive the word of God?
Am I actually letting it do a work in my heart or am i like the unbroken horse talking about it and actually pushing it away?
You see the self willed person says, “well this is what the word of God says but I have the right to disagree..” This may be what it says but I got my own line on what it means. Simply because the Bible says it doesn’t mean I have to take it literally I have my right to choose…
Do you hear the unbroken horse in that spirit?
“This might be what God says but right now it’s not what I want...”
Or worse still
“This is what I want, so it must be what God says.”
James says “you are receiving the Word of God and heres what we are each extrememly accountable. The way in which we receive it. Am I gonna push the challenge of God’s word away from me today, or am i gonna say “Lord whatever this meekness thing means, as you teach it to me, I am going to pursue it in my family, work, church.
That’s what it means to receive the word with meekness. the ability to flex according to shaping influence of God;s word in your life. So that your life becomes like wax, and the Word of God makes an imprint that is visible in the days that are up ahead.
Isn’t that why we come to church?
We don’t get together to stuff our heads or be entertained and then leave no different than we we first came in. So James says receive the Word of God with Meekness! Submitting yourself to God’s Word.
2. Submitting to God’s Will
2. Submitting to God’s Will
And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
There are times in every Christians life where God will put you in places that you would not have chosen to be, it will happen. It will keep happening. God puts you in a situation that you would not have chosen, and what happens is in the flesh and it is always resisting God.
Unbelief begins to come bubbling up: “Oh this must mean that God doesn’t love you after all because how could He love you and allow this to happen, and resentment can settle in. WHY IS IT THAT SHE GOT THIS BLESSING< AND HE GOT THAT JOB!
Well what does meekness look like, when God puts you in a place that you would not have chosen for yourself. Well let me give it to you in a picture. Come with me to a garden it’s late, and it’s dark. A few men are lying asleep on the ground, you go a little further and there is another man, and his whole body is draped over a large rock. As you see him He is sweating profusely. He is in an agony of the soul,and He says
“FATHER IF IT IS POSSIBLE, LET THIS CUP BE TAKEN FROM ME. NEVERTHELESS NOT WHAT I WILL, BUT YOUR WILL BE DONE.” Matthew 26:39
Frame that picture,… that’s meekness. Christ submitting Himself to the will of the Father at UNTHINKABLE COSTS. FRIENDS THAT IS WHAT JESUS IS CALLING US TO DO. BLESSED ARE THE MEEK FOR THEY SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH!
Have you become used to the hand of God upon your life?
Are you like the wild donkey that is still kicking and fighting against the call of Jesus Christ upon you. Here’s what meekness is, it submits to God’s Word and it submits to God’s will.
3. Submitting to God’s People
3. Submitting to God’s People
Now meekness begins by submitting to God;s Word and God’s will, but there is a human dynamic that includes submitting to God’s people. If you thought the first part is hard I promise you that this is even harder.
submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Ephesians
This is how we become blessed in our lives we cannot bypass this part. Here Paul is describing what people are like when they are lead by and controlled by the Holy Spirit.