BLESSED ARE THE MEEK

Transcription

1 Annual Sermons: Vol. 3 Sermon 25 Bob Marcaurelle Matthew 5:5 BLESSED ARE THE MEEK Blessed are the meek because they will inherit the earth It is impossible to overestimate the importance the Bible puts upon meekness. Three times in the Bible we find a list of virtues that should characterize every Christian. One list is found here in the Beatitudes, another is found in Paul s description of the new man in Christ (Col. 3:12 ff) and the third is found in his listing of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22 ff). These lists contain 19 different virtues and the onlyone found in all three is praotes - meekness. Meekness was a characteristic of Jesus. He said, I am meek and lowly (Mt. 11:29). Peter says meekness should characterize the way a Christian wife lives before her husband, Be beautiful inside, in your hearts, with the lasting charm of a gentle (praotes) and quiet spirit which is so precious to God. That kind of deep beauty was seen in the saintly women of old, who trusted God and fitted in with their husbands plans (1 Pet. 3:4-5, Living Bible). Meekness should characterize the way we witness. The Bible says,...if anybody asks you why you believe as you do, be ready to tell him, and do it in a gentle (praotes) and respectful way (1 Pet. 3:15, Living Bible). Meekness should characterize the way we help our fellow Christians when they stumble. The Bible says, Dear brothers, if a Christian is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently (praotes) and humbly help him back onto the right path, remembering that next time it might be one of you who is in the wrong (Gal. 6:1, Living Bible). These verses run the gamut of our lives. In the church, in the world and in the

2 home we are to be known for our meekness. We are to be God s gentlemen and gentle women. The problem is, that which the New Testament declares to be of the utmost importance, the world despises. It equates meekness with weakness and labels the meek man Casper Milquetoast. It sees him as a spineless excuse for a man. We in America are not conditioned to think of meekness as the road to success. With our Anglo-Saxon self-assertiveness, our Bill of Rights and our pioneer ancestry, we believe if you are to get anywhere in this world, you have to push your way there. I. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF MEEKNESS Meekness is practically impossible to define. The problem is, it is so rich and full of meaning that no one idea can capture it. Robert J. Hastings in his book on the Beatitudes, TAKE HEAVEN NOW, reveals the problem in his sermon title on meekness, The Six meanings of Meekness. Here is his list: Self-discipline, gentleness, teachability, humility, receiving and giving. Billy Graham does almost the same thing, for he lists five different virtues. Gentleness, yieldedness, tameness, forbearance, and patience. This bothers me because nothing means five different things. The Bible even takes some of these virtues they named and lists them along with meekness. No, we must narrow our vision and seek the central meaning. From these two sermonic lists and from the uses of this word in the New Testament we can easily see that meekness is associated with HUMILITY and GENTLENESS. A concise definition of meekness is the victory Jesus gives ov4er angry rebellion against God and man. Arthur Pink gets to the root of it when he says, Meekness if the opposite of SELF-WILL toward God, and of ILL-WILL toward men. Matthew Henry said, The meek are those who quietly submit themselves before God, to His Word, to His rod, who follow His directions and comply with His designs, and are gentle toward men. In other words, it is the control of the rebel that lives within us all. It is

3 yieldedness. It is taking up our cross to follow Him. It is praying, Thy will be done. It is the filling of the Holy Spirit, which simply means we yield up the controls of our lives. It is SUBMISSION or SURRENDER to the will and ways of God. This concise definition is verified by the use of this word in Greek society. The word proaotes was used for the taming of horses. See a wild stallion as strong as twenty men, yield to the touch of the reins and you see true meekness. Moses was a mighty warrior and he killed an Egyptian with his bare hands but God tamed him and forty years later his strength was bridled. And the Bible says, Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all men and that were on the face of the earth (Nu. 12:4). Now Moses, the Old Testament example of meekness, and Jesus, the New Testament example, were both strong, courageous, involved men. But their strength was under control by God. It was surrendered. And we are meek only as we too are surrendered. 1. The Surrender in Conversion. Jesus said, Come unto Me all of you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My YOKE upon you (Matt. 11:29). Proud Paul cried out on the day of his conversion, What will Thou have me to DO, Lord? (Acts 22:10). The first four beatitudes picture the stages of conversion. We see our spiritual bankruptcy. We are sorry for our sins. We yield ourselves up to Jesus as Savior and Lord. And we, from that day forward, desire to do that which pleases Him. The meek man has made an unconditional surrender of himself and his sins to the Lord Jesus Christ. 2. The Surrender in the Christian Life. Once we are in the kingdom of God we become involved in a life-long struggle to develop the traits we received in conversion. We who surrendered in conversion are tempted by Satan to rebel in particular areas and live outside God s best will for our

4 lives. Meekness must become an abiding attitude in the soul of the redeemed. Paul uses the present tense verb when he says, Be FILLED (controlled and empowered) by the Spirit (Eph. 5:18), it must be done DAILY. Jesus said, Take up your cross DAILY. Every day of our lives we face this question, Am I going to live today in unconditional surrender to God and in absolute trust in God? The meek man submits. He gives God the reins. This is not only true GODWARD, to the Lord, but OUTWARD, to our fellow men. Having yielded up our wills to God and having learned to bow daily, trustingly before His will and ways, we are then to control anger, to fight rebellion, to curb self-assertion, when it comes to our fellow men. Meek and submissive before God, we learn to be the same before men. Meekness is no hermit s virtue. The Bible connects it with family relationships (1 Pet. 3:4), harmony in the church (1 Cor. 4:21), witnessing in the world (1 Pet. 3:15), and restoring fallen friends (Gal. 6:1). It is a gentle and submissive and humble way of life. The meek man will stand for his convictions but will not attack you with the truth. He will show kindness to the fallen. He will not quarrel or gripe or gossip or hurt. He is willing to serve anywhere to keep harmony and power in the church. He is a Christian Gentleman. 3. The Surrender in a Courageous Life. Because the world equates meekness with cowardice we must emphasize the courageous element in it. When God instills meekness, He does not rip out our backbone and cause us to lie down like lambs before the onslaught of evil. The Christian gentleman may let you hurt him but because of his courage and love he will not let you hurt others. His silence in the face of what you do to him is GOLDEN, but silence in the face of what happens to others and in the face of sin against God, he knows is YELLOW.

5 We see this meekness without cowardice in both Moses and Jesus. In Numbers thirteen, Moses is called meek in the scene where his brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam, are heaping insults upon him. Before them he was meek and silent. Yet before the sin of Pharaoh and Israel he was as bold as a lion. And our Lord took insult after insult, but at times, when He faced the harm of sin upon others, He reacted with the wrath of God. I agree with Hastings, The meek are not shy, frightened, cowardly fellows with no backbone... they are strong, rooted in a strength that is controlled and held in restraint. They are God-tamed, God-tempered, and Godtrained. II. WHAT IS THE MOTIVATION FOR MEEKNESS The taming of the rebel in us is a tough job. It is an uphill fight because we are dealing with the tenderest part of human nature - the ego. Why should we be gentle and submissive? Fire and foremost, to be obedient. Our Lord wants it and that should be motivation enough. But to put icing on the cake Jesus gives us further motivation by giving us two blessings of meekness. And these are drawn from Psalm 37, which Jesus was quoting in this Beatitude. Blessing number one is happiness (Makarios). Listen to Psalm 37, Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart / COMMIT your way to the Lord, trust in him, and He will act (37:4, 5). The person who is always making sure he gets his rights, who lets no one get the best of him, is usually a miserable human being. The happy man s delight is in the Lord. Little losses do not disturb his peace because he has so much in God. Little slights don t rob him of his joy because no matter what people do to him or say bout him, he is a child of the King. Dr. S.I. McMillen, in his fine book NONE OF THESE DISEASES says (pg. 73) the moment we hate someone we become his slave. What he has done to us overshadows all our blessings and we cannot enjoy them. The man we want to get even with

6 haunts our every step. We sit down to a good steak and our teeth chew it and we swallow it but this man won t let us enjoy it. I have known farmers with hundreds of acres of beautiful farmland lose their joy over a few feet of worthless land they feel has been stolen from them. The Bible says, Better a dish of vegetables with love than the best beef served with hatred (Prove. 15:17, Moffatt). People filled with bitterness and hate and selfishness possess nothing. What they have possesses them. The man who is meek and gentle before the robbery of his rights is happy. The second blessing Jesus mentions is the inheritance of the earth. Taken again from Psalm 37 it means we will inherit the earth historically. We see this IN NATURE. The mammoth creatures of creation s dawn are gone and sheep still graze on a thousand hills. The vultures and eagles are dying out and little sparrows multiply by the millions. We see this in NATIONS. The Psalmist tells us not to envy the wicked (v. 1); they fade like grass (2), their sword will pierce their own heart (15) and their arms will be broken (17). Gibbon wrote The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. A hundred books could be written like that about Babylon and Persia and Nazi Germany. And one day we shall add Communism to that list and the meek nations will trample the once proud Reds underfoot. We see this in the CHURCH. Looking at the history of God s people we see a river of blood. Even today, behind the Iron and Bamboo curtains, God s people are trampled by fierce oppressors. In every age the hammers of hell pound but the church is the anvil that wears out the hammers. Every child of God, every Bible, every church steeple and every congregation gathered behind closed doors proves the meek are the gentle conquerors of this earth. But we will also inherit the earth eternally. The next verse in this marvelous Psalm says, The Lord knows the days of

7 the blameless, and their heritage will abide forever (37:18). This phrase inherit the land (earth) (v. 11) was used regularly of Israel s inheritance of Palestine and I agree with Pink that this is an Old Testament promise with a New Testament meaning. The land of Canaan is a figure of heaven but never forget that our inheritance includes not just heaven but this EARTH. God will purge this earth with fire when Jesus comes. The Bible says, We wait for new heavens and a new EARTH in which righteousness dwells (2 Pet. 3:13). They now sing the hymn, This is my Father s world/ O let me ne er forget That though the wrong seems oft so strong God is the ruler yet. This is my Father s world/ The battle is not done Jesus who died shall be satisfied/ And earth and heaven be one. Look around you. Take everything you see, subtract sin and suffering and you catch a glimpse of what God has in store for us. This land is our land. This universe is our universe. The vast unexplored depths of outer space shall be ours. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit, not only the earth, but all that surrounds it. And who are these meek ones? Why, they are those who have come to Jesus for the cleansing power, who have yielded themselves to the Lordship of Jesus, who have been made meek by the love and power of the Lord.