Sermon on the Mount: Flourishing are the Merciful

Matthew 5:7 Flourishing are the Merciful Introduction: The Sermon on the Mount is not teaching us how to get into the kingdom - the Bible makes it clear that entrance to God’s kingdom is only through grace - by the sacrificial work of Jesus. The sermon is also not teaching us how we stay in the kingdom. Rather it is a description of the character and conduct of those who already belong to the kingdom. The Sermon is not a call to repentance, though that may be involved at times, it is a description of the expression and evidences of true repentance. As Nicolai reminded us last week the audience is the disciple of Jesus. The sermon describes the life that necessarily results from genuine salvation. What God is doing, and wants to continue in us. What he is making us into by the work of his Spirit and grace upon us. So the purpose of this sermon, I believe, is for God to work his kingdom characteristics, his kingdom virtues in us, so that we can achieve the human flourishing that God intends for us, and properly represent him and his Kingdom until his return. Jesus begins his sermon by painting a picture of what the state of true God centered human flourishing looks like; what true well being looks like in the kingdom of God. The beatitudes, like the rest of wisdom literature in scripture, are an implicit invitation to consider what the best way of being in the world is and to pursue it. True flourishing is a life that is lived in light of the eternal kingdom of God, the kingdom that Jesus claims is here now, and at work through him. But as I warned before this is topsy turvy, upside down, counter-cultural stuff that Jesus is bringing to us and that is because his kingdom is like no other. We pick up this morning in the 5th beatitude. 1. Flourishing are the Merciful, for the shall receive Mercy. 1. Sometimes when we think of mercy it’s in terms of forgiving someone, who is in our debt. Or maybe showing mercy instead of taking revenge on someone. Well in scripture mercy is of course used in terms of forgiveness of wrong or financial debt but more than anything else Mercy is used as a description of kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them. 1. Mercy is not weak, like niceness or tolerance. It is very strong with concrete actions of love, compassion and sympathetic grace to those who are oppressed or to those who have failed…The idea in Scripture is closely connected with social justice.. it’s a great follow up characteristic to the people that are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. 2. Mercy or merciful appears about 300 times in the Bible. It is a very important theme and ideal. 2. When a Jew heard the word mercy or merciful he or she would hyperlink back to Exodus 34 (the most quoted verses in all of scripture). This is where God declared his name to Moses. It says, "The Lord passed before (Moses) and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” -Exodus 34:6-7 1. Think about how important it is that when God tells his name (his character, who he is) to Moses the first thing he says, is that he is merciful and gracious. Tim Keller makes a great point about this in his book Generous Justice (Highly recommend this book). He says, we cannot miss the significance of this. When people ask how you want to be introduced you tell them your name and what you do.. Well here we have God telling us his name and what he does, what he is about. He is about mercy and grace. 2. Inherent in the character of God is mercy; he doesn’t just show mercy, it is part of who he is. It is the first thing God tells us about himself. A hugely defining characteristic. Though we often make caricatures of an angry, wrathful god, or a god that is solely concerned with piety or holiness. God himself tells us that he is first and foremost full of Mercy. A God of social justice. 3. Listen to these verses describing God’s mercy: 1. “He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them he remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.” Psalm 146:7-9 2. “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.” Deuteronomy 10:17-18 3. “Mercy or Justice” is inconveniencing yourself for the sake of the “worthless person” especially the widow, orphan, stranger and poor. Injustice is keeping my stuff for my own comfort.” Dr. Gerry Breshears 4. Remember in the beatitudes we are talking about the upside down, counter cultural kingdom of God. This is what God’s kingdom is like, and this is what his people are to be about - A people of Mercy. 3. Something we have to be really careful about in this sermon, and the Beatitudes especially, is to say, what God cares about is the heart, or the “spiritual” so don’t worry about the work, or the practice.. 1. Jesus does rebuke the Pharisees for their righteous deeds, but not because they are bad, but because they are devoid of mercy, goodness and love. They are done for the sake of being “religious” "pious" or “holy”. 2. Think about the Parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) . He is called “the one who showed mercy.” The other two men, the Priest and the Levite, are not “bad people” in the sense that we think. They are very “good people”, very “spiritual people”; and they don’t want to hinder or taint their spiritual temple service to God (holiness) by touching a dead body making them unclean. They think they are doing righteousness. But Jesus asks, who is the one that really fulfilled the Law? The men who were going to temple, praying, fasting, keeping themselves pure? No. It was the man that put his devotion to God into action the one who showed mercy fulfilled the Law of love. 3. Jesus later will quote Hosea 6:6, saying to the Jewish leaders "Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” 4. In Jeremiah 22:15-16 God speaks to the King of Judah through Jeremiah the prophet and says, "Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me? declares the Lord…” 5. In Yahweh’s own words..this is what it means to know Him (This is true spirituality); To do justice, righteousness, to defend the cause of the poor and needy..to be merciful. 4. DON’T MISS THIS! Both inward and outward character are important to God. A heart that is devoted to God will show that devotion in everyday practices of life.. I mean read James, this is what he is constantly getting after. Either a spirituality that is only inward and has no outward manifestation or a spirituality that is only outward and has no inward devotion to God. Both are bankrupt/ bogus without the other. Example: Today we go do justice, but ignore being just. We condemn sex trafficking, raise money to help people out of it while doing porn. Or the personal inward holiness side is - I condemn pornography but care nothing for the sex slave girl or boy. or if were a little more socially active, we “like", some social cause on facebook and think that that is sufficient for doing righteousness and justice... 1. God wants to make us into WHOLE people. God wants to make us into people of Character. God wants to make us into people who actually do mercy (kindness, service, feeding, helping, caring, healing), because that’s the kind of people we are, the people we have become, because of God’s own Spirit and character at work in us. 2. But isn’t it so easy to justify ourselves when we see people in need? We make up scenarios of why and how they got to be the way that they are. “Well if I give them money then they’ll spend it on booze, then I would be guilty of making them sin even more…” (Story about Dad and Mom).. 3. Is that how God thinks about us? “If I show them mercy they’ll probably just squander it, use on more sinning..” You might think so, but remember the most quoted scripture in all the Bible is about God’s character of mercy, grace, steadfast love, faithfulness, and forgiveness... 1. This is what God wants for us to be a people of mercy. That’s where it’s at; that is a flourishing life. 2. The Merciful will be shown Mercy 1. But some people do not deserve mercy, you say, they will take advantage of you, and others, they are predators.. and a thousand other protests.. 2. Story of the Unforgiving or Unmerciful Servant… (Read Matthew 18:21-35) 3. Now of course God, more than any, could justify all the reasons that humanity does not deserve mercy and justify giving us our just deserts. But he doesn’t. Instead, the King of glory would step down off of his heavenly thrown, humble himself, become human, serve humanity, and gives his life as a sacrifice for our ransom and rescue. Jesus inconvenienced himself for the worthless person. He did not keep his own stuff for his own comfort, but freely gave it up for us. 4. I believe God, wants to remove our cynicism, our prejudgments, prejudices and self justification and wants to flood our hearts with his mercy so that it overflows, and abounds to others in acts of mercy and love. I believe if anything God wants his people to err on the side of mercy. 5. Many people want to play the victim in our world, but though we might in fact be a victim (and I am not down playing that to any degree), it is most likely that we are also guilty of offending, hurting or oppressing at some point and time as well. The scripture describes us as both victims of sin and brokenness and coconspirators in sin and brokenness, through our selfishness. Mercy is a two way street, we cannot receive mercy from God and yet withhold it from others. 6. When Jesus says, the merciful shall obtain mercy, it sounds very similar to what he says in his instructions on prayer about forgiving people being forgiven.. what does it mean? Is God telling us that if we fail to show mercy in even one situation, that he will to be merciful to us? Or if we fail to forgive others on small sin against us that all our sins will not be forgiven? I think it is a little more simple than that. Remember these are not commands to get into God’s kingdoms, nor guidelines to stay in but are characteristics, and a way of being that exemplifies God’s way of being, God’s kingdom. God is merciful, therefore his people are merciful people, God is a forgiving God, therefore his people are a forgiving people. Those who do not show mercy, and forgiveness, or live a life of mercy and forgiveness clearly show that don’t get it. They have not been truly touched or changed by the mercy and forgiveness of God. 7. Neuroscientist have done studies that show that the same part of your brain that processes forgiving someone, is the same part that processes receiving forgiveness… “ In, Surprised by Hope, N. T. Wright says, "Forgiveness is a way of life, God's way of life, God's way to life; and if you close your heart to forgiveness, why, then, you close your heart to forgiveness. . . If you lock up the piano because you don't want to play to somebody else, how can God play to you? "That is why we pray, 'Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.' That isn't a bargain we make with God. It's a fact of human life. Not to forgive is to shut down a faculty in the innermost person, which happens to be the same faculty that can receive God's forgiveness.” 3. Conclusion: A clarifying question is to ask whom are we to show mercy? Anyone and everyone. The “deserving” and “undeserving” Especially those in need, those suffering injustice, those who are poor, those who are oppressed, those who have failed. We need to show it in our words and tone, in our actions, our posture and our presence. How are we alleviating the burdens of others, whether pain, angst, failure or guilt? 1. Again - Some of us might be thinking, as I said we would, this is so countercultural you can’t actually live this way. But isn’t that the whole point - Shouldn’t the people of God live in a way that defies the common practices and perspectives of the world and our culture? As a matter of fact yes, Christians lives should be lived in a way that both resonates with the deep longings of our culture yet simultaneously defies the power, practices and idols of that culture. As Eugene Peterson says, “The Church is to be a colony of heaven in the country of death”. 1. “What Jesus teaches in the sayings collected in the Sermon on the Mount is not a complete regulation of the life of the disciples, and it is not intended to be; rather, what is taught here is symptoms, signs, examples of what it means when the kingdom of God breaks into the world which is still under sin, death, and the devil. You yourselves should be signs of the coming kingdom of God, signs that something has already happened.” -Joachim Jeremias 2. What if we actually lived as signs of the kingdom? What if we actually put into practice, in our hearts, in our homes, at our work, around our neighbors, in our politics the upside down kingdom of God? 3. Jesus, the master, says this is the way of true flourishing. Will we believe him and take him at his word? Will we repent of our selfreliant, proud, assertive self justifying, unmerciful ways and take his yoke upon us, his kingdom mission and learn from him? I pray we will.