Mercy for Mercy's Sake

The Beatitudes  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Part 6 of the Compass Men's Bible Study summer series 2020

Notes
Transcript

Intro

“Pay it Forward”
Kid comes up with an idea for a school project to “change the world” by doing a favor for someone and asking them to “pay it forward” instead of “pay it back.”
I have to acknowledge up front that it is a difficult endeavor to preach a single sermon on the doctrine of mercy. And this sermon will not even scratch the surface of all there is to say about the mercy of God. But at the same time, my purpose isn’t to exhaust the subject. Rather, in the simplicity of what Jesus says in this beatitude, I pray that it will cause us to love Jesus more, to be more thankful for the mercy He showed to us, and to respond by letting His mercy flow through us to others.

Body

Mercy = “kindness or concern expressed for someone in need”
This is an attribute of God
Exodus 34:6 (ESV) — 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
Deuteronomy 4:31 (ESV) — 31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.
Psalm 18:25 (ESV) — 25 With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
This is an attribute God desires in His people
Matthew 9:13 (ESV) — 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (CONTEXT)
Matthew 23:23 (ESV) — 23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
The beatitude we are looking at this week connects both of these concepts — God’s mercy and our need to be merciful.
Matthew 5:7 ESV
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Turning point in the beatitudes as we move from the internal to the external.
Blessed are those who show mercy for they shall be shown mercy.
The question this presents is this: Does this verse imply that the mercy shown to us is somehow contingent upon the mercy we have shown to others?
Let Scripture interpret Scripture.
The rest of the canon won’t allow for an interpretation that makes God’s mercy shown to us contingent upon something we do.
Deuteronomy 7:6–8 (ESV) — 6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Romans 5:8 (ESV) — 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Ephesians 2:4–7 (ESV) — 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
We’ll see this developed even more later, but Jesus’ point is actually the opposite: Those who have been shown such incredible mercy should themselves be merciful to others.
If we hope to fulfill this beatitude it will require us to begin by becoming aware of the needs of others.

Recognize the Plight of Others

The parable of the Good Samaritan — Only the Samaritan was moved by the needs of the wounded man. Everyone else only thought of themselves and the danger they might befall if they stopped.
Matthew 22:36–40 (ESV) — 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Our love for the Lord leads us to think of the gospel, of how much he loved us, which should in turn produce in us a compassion for others.
1 John 3:14 (ESV) — 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.
1 John 3:16 (ESV) — 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
1 John 4:7 (ESV) — 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:8 (ESV) — 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:11 (ESV) — 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:19 (ESV) — 19 We love because he first loved us.
This involves living a life that is outwardly focused, that is bent on the good of others more than the good of ourselves.
What are the needs of those around me?
Home?
Small Group?
Prayer lists
Church?
Prayer lists
Neighbors?
As someone who believes in God and the power of prayer I would love to be praying for you.
Is there anything specific I can be praying for for you?
Coworkers?
City?
This is a life that is a natural byproduct of our previous beatitudes that we have been looking at.
Poor in spirit (5:3)
Mourn (5:4)
Meek (5:5)
Hunger & Thirst for Righteousness (5:6)
These are all crucial elements of our ability to recognize the plight of others, to be moved by the difficult situations of others.
And as we’ve been studying, these are all characteristics of a believer. In other words, I can’t work this up by my own willpower.
Philippians 2:3–8 (ESV) — 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
This recognition of the plight of others is borne out of love, but it is only fully realized when we not only recognize it, but act to alleviate it.
Matthew 5:7 ESV
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
One cannot truly be considered merciful without actually SHOWING mercy. Mercy is only verifiable through action. Compassion is only manifested in deed.
James put it this way in describing faith:
James 2:14–17 (ESV) — 14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Mercy is more than feeling sorry for someone.
Mercy is more than wishing well for someone.
Mercy is more than telling someone you will pray for them.
Mercy is entering into the suffering of another person in a tangible way so as to do whatever is in your means to alleviate their pain.
That’s why it’s not enough for us to say “Go in peace, be warmed and filled”. We must act.

Enter into the Plight of Others

The Parable of the Good Samaritan — the Samaritan not only saw the man and felt compassion for him internally, but he showed this by stopping and demonstrating mercy to this man incurring great cost to himself without expecting anything in return.
Proverbs 3:27–28 (ESV) — 27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. 28 Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it”—when you have it with you.
1 John 3:18 (ESV) — 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
I like what James Boice says when he talks about the relationship of grace and mercy: Grace is love when love is undeserved. Mercy is grace in action. Mercy is love reaching out to help those who are helpless and who need salvation. Mercy identifies with the miserable in their misery.
Galatians 1:3–5 (ESV) — 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Now that you’ve recognized the needs of others ask yourself, “What can I do to meet these needs?”.
Money
Time
Resources (home, food, car, etc.)
You (abilities, words, presence, prayers, counsel, witness)
I grew up hearing people define mercy and grace this way:
Mercy is not getting what you deserve
Grace is getting what you don’t deserve
I don’t think that’s right. I think that short-sells mercy to say that it is only “not getting what we deserve.”
God’s mercy to us extends beyond not punishing us.
Like Paul said in Ephesians 2:4, God’s mercy working along with his love, is what saved us and regenerated us.
This may be starting to sound like one of those checklist sermons all about what we have to do as Christians. That’s why it’s important to zoom out here again to gain the 30,000 foot view of what Jesus was saying.
Matthew 5:7 ESV
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
The temptation to read this as Jesus holding out a requirement, a to-do list, for us to ensure we receive mercy ourselves is understandable.
But what if we turn things on their heads for a minute.
How can a person truly be merciful? How is it possible for a person to put into practice what Jesus is talking about in this beatitude?
Isaiah 64:6 (ESV) — 6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Isaiah 53:5–6 (ESV) — 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Only those who have truly experienced the mercy of God in their own lives can truly turn and be merciful to others themselves.

Show Mercy as an Overflow of the Mercy Shown to You

The parable of the unforgiving servant — Matthew 18:31-35
Our desire to show mercy should come from an awareness of how much more mercy has been shown to us.
Romans 5 — we were weak, ungodly, sinful, enemies of God when he showed his love for us by dying for our sins
Ephesians 2 — we were dead in our transgressions when God, rich in mercy, made us alive
We owed the insurmountable debt, and God, in His mercy didn’t just withhold justice, He met our need and filled up our accounts to overflowing.
The only one who has ever loved like the Good Samaritan is JESUS! We aren’t the Good Samaritan in that story. We’re the guy laying on the side of the road in a pool of our own blood having been beaten and robbed and left for dead by our own depravity. JESUS, moved by His love, His compassion, His mercy for us, came to our rescue not just removing us from danger, but restoring us to wellness at a great cost to Himself.
Thoughts that hinder mercy:
I don’t have the time
They don’t deserve it
It won’t make a difference
No one helped me when I had a similar need
They won’t learn the lesson they need to learn
They made their bed, let them lay in it
If I help it might cost me too much
Thoughts that promote mercy:
Philippians 2
Romans 5
Ephesians 2
Galatians 1
Isaiah 53
Our display of mercy in helping others is first and foremost about our heart of gratitude toward Jesus for the mercy He showed to us.
If we are thankful for what Jesus has done for us it should drive us to love others on His behalf.
Nothing else will sustain this. Willpower will fail. Our natural resting state is one of selfishness.
Only a life changed and transformed by JESUS can truly be merciful to others.
So in that sense it is only as we have been shown mercy that we can show mercy to others. So if we are showing mercy to others it is a sign that we will one day be shown the ultimate mercy in our future glorification.

Conclusion

This is the greatest example of “Pay it Forward”. One great act of mercy that spawns countless others.
JESUS has been merciful to us, praise God, in transforming us so that we are poor in spirit, brokenhearted over the sins of this world, meek and humble, and hungry for Him. This transformation is the fuel and the motivation for us now to be those who are merciful to others aware of the great mercy that we have been shown by our Savior.
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