This sermon is from the series PORTRAIT OF A CHRISTIAN. It was preached at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, Georgia by Pastor Paul Mims on

Transcription

1 This sermon is from the series PORTRAIT OF A CHRISTIAN. It was preached at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, Georgia by Pastor Paul Mims on October 11, You can hear this sermon at WHEN YOU ARE GRIPPED BY GRACE MATTHEW 5:1-5 The world does not understand Jesus when he says, Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. I looked up in the dictionary the meaning of the word meek. The definition given was, Showing patience and humility, gentle. Easily imposed upon: submissive. In popular usage today, meekness is synonymous with being a doormat in which you allow people to walk all over you. This was most certainly not the meaning that Jesus had in mind. Philip Yancey in his book, THE JESUS I NEVER KNEW tells how some psychologists and psychiatrists have adopted Freud s view that the Beatitudes prove that Jesus had an imbalanced view of life. He quotes a distinguished British psychologist who in a speech to the Royal Society of Medicine said: The spirit of self-sacrifice which permeates Christianity, and is so highly prized in the Christian religious life, is masochism moderately indulged. A much stronger expression of it is to be found in Christ s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. This blesses the poor, the meek, the persecuted; exhorts us not to resist evil but to offer the other cheek; and to do good to them that hate you and forgive men their trespasses. All of this breathes masochism. Masochism is defined as deriving pleasure from being offended, dominated, or mistreated in some way. Do you see how misunderstood this beatitude is? Let s see if we can get to its real meaning. I. STRENGTH UNDER CONTROL

2 The New American Standard Translation uses the word gentle here. Blessed are the gentle for they shall inherit the earth. The same Greek word is used in other places in the Bible and is translated gentle. In Second Timothy 2:24 25, the Apostle Paul says that this quality is essential to leadership: The Lord s bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition... The same Greek word that is used in the beatitude is used in Galatians 5:23....gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. The Greek historian, Xenophon, used the very same word that Jesus used in the beatitude to describe a horse broken so that it can be saddled and used under man s control. Picture in your mind a wild horse running across an open range. The word that Jesus uses envisions a person who is like a wild horse being brought under his control by the work of the Holy Spirit in his or her life. Just as a tamed horse is a picture of power under control, a person who has experienced the first two Beatitudes is also strength and power under control. You remember that Jesus said, O the bliss of the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven O the bliss of those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Once a person has experienced a genuine, humble repentance before the Lord and has come to feel about his sin as the Lord does, he or she is strength under control. This has nothing to do with weakness. It has everything to do with a strength beyond ourselves. This is when we are in the grip of grace. A.W. Tozer described it like this: The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather, he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Sampson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God s estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God declared him

3 to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God more important than angels. In our day rugged individualism is admired. In the Old Testament it was admired in the person of Moses. In Numbers 12:3 we read, Now Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth. Look at his life and see how he was a man under God s control. See him as he marches into Pharaoh s court and gives God s command that he let the children of Israel go. He did not go in his own strength but he went in a divine strength that God had given him. He did not want to do this and asked God to get someone else, but God said, I have chosen you. He submits to God and becomes strong. See him as he stands at the river s edge and lifts his staff and sees the waters part so that the children of Israel could cross. See him as he climbs up to the summit of Mt. Sinai. There he is alone to meet with God. In the midst of thundering and lightning, he is able to hear the voice of God give him the 10 Commandments. With his face shining with the presence of God he comes down the mountain to proclaim them to the people. Moses is described in the King James translation as The meekest man on earth. To be sure, he was strength under control. We can also see this quality in children. An elderly woman and her little grandson, whose face was sprinkled with bright freckles, spent the day at the zoo. Lots of children were waiting in line to get their cheeks painted by a local artist who was decorating them with tiger paws. "You've got so many freckles, there's no place to paint!" a girl in the line said to the little fella. Embarrassed, the little boy dropped his head. His grandmother knelt down next to him. "I love your freckles. When I was a little girl I always wanted freckles," she said, while tracing her finger across the child's cheek. "Freckles are beautiful." The boy looked up, "Really?" "Of course," said the grandmother. "Why just name me one thing that's prettier than freckles." The little boy thought for a moment,

4 peered intensely into his grandma's face and softly whispered, "Wrinkles. Jesus was gentle and is an example for us in strength under control. The prophet, Zechariah, says in chapter 9 and verse nine: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; he is just and endowed with salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey. Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. That is a description of how Jesus rode into Jerusalem in what we call the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. Jesus showed strength under control in Matthew 27: Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor questioned him saying, Are you the King of the Jews? And Jesus said to him, It is as you say. And while he was being accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. Then Pilate said to him, Do you not hear how many things they testify against you? And he did not answer him with regard to a single charge, so that the governor was quiet amazed. Jesus is gentle in dealing with us. In Matthew 11:28 29 he said, Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Are you strong enough to be gentle? Richard Dunagin probes us on this question. At their school carnival, our kids won four free goldfish (lucky us!), so out I went Saturday morning to find an aquarium. The first few I priced ranged from $40 to $70. Then I spotted it--right in the aisle: a discarded 10-gallon display tank, complete with gravel and filter--for a mere five bucks. Sold! Of course, it was nasty dirty, but the savings made the two hours of clean-up a breeze. Those four new fish looked great in their new home, at least for the first day. But by Sunday one had died. Too bad, but three remained.

5 Monday morning revealed a second casualty, and by Monday night a third goldfish had gone belly up. We called in an expert, a member of our church who has a 30-gallon tank. It didn't take him long to discover the problem: I had washed the tank with soap, an absolute no-no. My uninformed efforts had destroyed the very lives I was trying to protect. Sometimes in our zeal to clean up our own lives or the lives of others, we unfortunately use "killer soaps"--condemnation, criticism, nagging, fits of temper. We think we're doing right, but our harsh, self-righteous treatment is more than they can bear. II. A BALANCED LIFE Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. What could Jesus mean by this statement? I have read interpretations that applied this statement to eschatology saying that the people who fulfill this beatitude will spend eternity here on the earth. It is a belief that heaven will be here on the earth. That may be true when the earth is renewed in the coming of a new heaven and a new earth. But I don t think that this is what Jesus meant. I believe that he was saying that if we are in the grip of grace, the Holy Spirit creates in us the strength of gentleness that our earthly lives will be blessed and balanced. You will be in good relationship with family, friends, and the world around you. You will not have to spend your days embroiled in hatred, anger, and strife. Your days on the earth will be balanced and good. This is the inheritance that comes from Christ living in us and reproducing us in his likeness. It is so easy to get off balance in our lives. Jesus gave these teachings to train his servants beginning with the 12 Apostles on how to carry out their ministry. He wants his people who are his servants to have a balanced life in two broad areas. First, he wants us to have balanced mental health. If we harbor guilt when he has forgiven us, this will affect our mental well-being. True

6 repentance as described in the first beatitude results not only in God forgiving us, but in the forgiving of ourselves. If we harbor shame in our hearts because of some failure in our lives, this will tend to keep us off balance. If we allow unresolved issues with other people to go on and on, this will keep us off balance. All of these things will affect our mental health. Secondly, Jesus wants us to have spiritual health. When we are in the grip of grace and our character is formed after the gentle Jesus, we will find that we are placed under the umbrella of the favor of God. We will inherit as spiritual blessings all of the graces of the Christian life that God has to give us. We are living in biblical truth about ourselves and about our place in the world. This produces a strong mental health. As you know, David had a difficult time as King of Israel. He faced opposition from his family, from his enemies, and from himself. In his struggles he wrote many of the Psalms that express all of the emotions that we as human beings experience. Psalm 18 was written after the Lord had delivered him from his enemies and from Saul. He said to the Lord in verses 35-36; You have also given me the shield of your salvation and your right hand upholds me. And your gentleness makes me great. You enlarge my steps under me and my feet have not slipped. It works the same way with us. God s gentleness with our ups and downs gives us stability for a balanced life. Do you know the name, Andre Crouch? He has pastored a church, worked with drug addicts and prostitutes, and produced much of the music for Disney s The Lion King and Spielberg s The Color Purple. He has won eight Grammy awards and performed in 60 countries. Most of all, Crouch has enjoyed helping troubled people. One such person was named, Larry. One day Larry phoned Crouch and told him to read Luke 15, the chapter that contains the stories of the lost sheep

7 and the prodigal son. Larry said that those chapters depicted his experience in coming to Christ and suggested that Andre write a song about it. The inspiration came as Andre thought about Larry s conversion and about the prodigal son. He wrote My Tribute. How can I say thanks for the things you have done for me things so undeserved, yet you give to prove your love for me? The voices of a million angels could not express my gratitude all that I am and ever hope to be, I owe it all to Thee. To God be the glory, to God be the glory, to God be the glory for the great things he has done. With his blood he has saved me; with his power he has raised me; to God be the glory for the great things he has done. Just let me live my life; let it be pleasing, Lord, to thee and should I gain any praise, let it go to Calvary. This expresses how we are in the grip of grace! PRAISE BE TO HIS NAME!