Broken Keys of the Kingdom: Godly Character for a Godless World Less is More Subseries New Life Assembly Matt 5:4; Luke 6:21b January 9, 2011 Main Sermon Idea: In the midst of our sorrows, we know that God will comfort us always. Sermon Application: We can be blessed despite the mourning that we do in our lives because God will make our mourning turn to joy when He brings His consolation and His kingdom in the end of time. But He has not left us to mourn now, for He sent His Comforter to us! Introduction I know you have all heard me talk about the death of my Grandpa before. He was a great man of God and a minister. I think he might have been one of the first people I told that I wanted to be a minister. We had a special relationship because I wanted to do what he did and be like him. Sometimes my mom tells me that I sound just like him, and those times make me feel special. It s been 9 years since he passed away this February. I remember I was a senior in high school and got called into the office in the morning. Mom was on the phone and told me he passed away. The grief of that moment did not strike me, nor did it strike me throughout the funeral. I was one of the pawbearers, and that s when it hit me, in the back seat of the car on the way to the graveside service. I lost it and cried in my grief. The sense of loss was extremely acute, and I miss him oh so much nowadays that I m actually doing the ministry and am ordained now. Those are special moments that I wish he was there for. We all have similar moments of extreme grief. Others in my family have passed away, and some friends from time to time, but I remember my Grandpa first. I think one of the things about grief is that it lingers beyond the events that trigger it. Most would consider grief and mourning to be things that we are not blessed to endure. They are usually seen in a negative light in our society. But Jesus had more to say about mourning. Let s take a look at the second Beatitude this morning. Turn to Matthew 5:4. I. We experience the most mournful states in this life. A. What does it mean to mourn? 1.Mourning is not something we do without care. a. The closer we are to a tragic event, the more we mourn. The more personal it is, the more we weep. There are some things that we want to mourn for, but we don t feel so acutely the need to mourn. 1
b. Illustration: One example for me of this is 9/11. I remember where I was and how I felt that day when the airplanes attacked the World Trade Centers. I felt bad for our country and for the people that were directly involved in the event. I prayed for them as I would pray for any other tragedy in my life or that is mentioned to me. But as the event faded into history, it did not stay in my heart as clear as my grandpa s death. I was not too close to it. I didn t know any of the people. None of my family were there. It feels wrong to not feel some sadness about it, but it also feels wrong to not feel sad about it. These feelings arise because I was not as close to the event as many others. c. It is hard for us to fully mourn for things that are not directly involved with our own lives. I don t see this as selfish, but more as the amount of affect we receive. d. There were actually professional mourners in Jesus day. They visit in his ministry from time to time. I think that would be the hardest job ever, to mourn for someone you don t even know! e. They show up when the young girl passes away, and Jesus actually kicks them out so that He can raise her from the dead. Another place they most likely show up is at the tomb of Lazarus. f. Application: I used to feel disingenuous when others would tell me of their sadness and suffering, because it had little effect on me. But I realized that because I care about the person who is in distress and telling me about it, that I can indeed empathize with them. We must be people who understand the suffering and pain of others and point them toward the healing that Jesus provides. But we must learn to mourn with them in their sorrows. 2.Mourning brings us into the midst of the situation. a. One of the greatest things of about community living in Christ s kingdom is getting to live life with others. Sometimes that means that we weep with them in the hard times, and sometimes it means that we share in their joy with them. b. When we love one another in Christ, we are unselfishly drawn into the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ. The Kingdom community is a place where we live in every season of life with each other. c. Throughout the Bible, there are different ways to mourn. Some is part of weeping and wailing, hence Luke s difference of word choice in using the word for weeping. 2
d. Mourning was a way of outwardly expressing an inner feeling of sorrow for a certain situation. Many would wear sackcloth and put ashes on their head, usually in mourning over death, a visual image for an inward emotion. e. There were also songs of lament and funeral dirges that accompanied grief and mourning. We can t mourn for someone we don t care about. That is why mourning is such an important part of life, because it shows how connected we are. f. Application: There are many different ways to mourn and each culture has its own ways. What is important about the culture of the Kingdom of God is that when we mourn, we are comforted. Each of us need to be people that have an emotional intelligence and learn how to mourn with others and allow the Spirit to use us to comfort them. B. Why do we mourn? 1.Some mourn for the injustices of this world. a. There are several reasons why the members of the Kingdom would mourn. One of them is the injustices that are found in this fallen world against the righteous. b. There are numerous examples from the Scriptures concerning this type of mourning or grief. From the Proverbs to the prophets and the Church of Acts being persecuted to the murdered saints of Revelation crying out for God s justice to come swiftly, we see this clearly in Scripture. c. It is not that the righteous are whining that the wicked always get what they want but that the righteous are mourning the fact that evil reigns and it destroys and damages so many lives and our world. d. It is most likely that this is the most common image of mourning by the righteous Kingdom community. But there are other reasons why we mourn as believers. e. Application: This world is not a good place at all. Superficially and on the surface, there is still a bit of beauty from our Creator in it, but sin has destroyed it. We see injustice and ungodliness every day. We must be mournful over the sad state of our world. That mourning should cause us to want to evangelize our world. Let s not just mourn for the world. Let s also bring hope and light to it! 2.Some mourn for the sins of themselves or others. 3
a. Another reason for mourning and grief is our sin or the sin of others. There is ample Scriptural evidence for this type of mourning as well. b. Paul talks about a godly sorrow that leads to repentance in 2 Corinthians 7:10. We must be sorrowful about the sins that we commit and the sin that others commit. c. When we do not react with grief for our own sins, then we don t stop committing them. We must not like sin and not want to sin and not enjoy sin on any level. Indeed, sinning is what grieves also the Holy Spirit! d. Application: How do you react to sin in your life and in others lives? Do you condone it by laughing it off, or even by not caring that it happened? We shouldn t be surprised to see sin in others or even in ourselves, but we should not laugh it off or treat it as though it isn t dangerous. Sin grieves the heart of God, and it must grieve our own hearts as well. Let s not enjoy sin, but weep that it is still alive and well in our friends, and sometimes in us. 3.Some mourn for the death around us. a. Another reason for mourning in this life by the saints is the death of a loved one. Death is the result of sin in our world and though we don t mourn as the world does, we still mourn the loss of great saints and loved ones. b. Just because a saint goes to be with the Lord does not mean that we don t miss them being here. Paul said to one of the churches that he had a hard choice. He desired to be with the Lord but they also needed him here on earth. c. The world grieves because this is not a temporary loss but a permanent one for them. They fear death because it is unnatural to them. But for the believer, death has no sting. d. In the Kingdom, we mourn for the death of a loved one not because of the hopelessness the world attaches to death, but because of the loss of that person even if only for a short time. e. Illustration: I have been to a lot of Christian funerals, and I can tell you that the people still cry. They still feel a deep sense of loss. But there is this undergirding comfort from the Lord about their eternal destiny and it has a very comforting effect. The Lord even walks with us. We don t know why the Lord takes people when He does, but we are comforted in that they are now with Him. f. Application: When we experience death among the saints, we have the opportunity to be there for the families that have a deep 4
hole in their hearts from the home-going of a precious saint. We can be there for them in their time of mourning. We can mourn with them, for there is a loss here on this earth. But we can also help them to feel the comfort of the Lord in these times as well. That is our ministry to them. II. We count on the comfort that God brings into our life. A. God will bring comfort into our present lives. 1.Jesus is our comforter who wraps His love around us. a. In Matthew, the verb for comfort is not present tense like it was last week with the kingdom of heaven being theirs. It is a future verb. b. Many have said then that the comfort is not part of our lives now, but will be in the future. While this is certainly true when God comes in the end of time, it is also true that there is present comfort for the members of God s Kingdom. c. Usually comfort comes after the mourning in our hearts. We mourn, and there is no comfort, but then the Lord brings us comfort. This could be one reason for the future verb. Perhaps it is a future verb speaking to a sequence of events rather than a time in the distant future. d. Paul talks about the God of all comfort, and we know that Jesus comforts us in our sorrows and woes. He is our comfort in this world. We would be pitied by everyone if it were not so that we could draw comfort from Jesus. e. Illustration: When I m in a situation of grief or pain, I cry out to Jesus. It s rather strange to me that when I call on His name, His name alone gives me comfort. When I think on Him and the things of God, I am comforted. They feel like home, like a serene and guarded place to me. I don t know about you, but in saying and singing Jesus name, I am comforted. Images of the good shepherd rush through my mind when I call on Him. There is comfort in the name of Jesus. Just like with a loved one, when we think about Jesus, we feel the comfort that He can bring. f. Application: We need to learn to call on Jesus first in our sorrows. All too often we go to other places for comfort, and we are sorely disappointed. But we must learn to ask Jesus to comfort us. No one can comfort us like Him. He holds the whole world in the palm of His hand, and only in Him are we safe and prosperous. Let us call on His name in the most mournful of circumstances! 2.The Holy Spirit comforts us in the midst of our trials. 5
a. One of the most interesting parts about this beatitude is that it uses the same word in Greek for the Holy Spirit being our comforter that John uses. b. Of course, here it is in the verbal form, but if you ve ever heard of the Paraklete of John, the same root is used here for comfort. This has led several scholars to note that the Holy Spirit is a comfort to us. c. The Holy Spirit was sent as the Comforter for believers in this time between the promise and the fulfillment. In John 14:16, Jesus promises that the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, will dwell in believers. d. The Holy Spirit guides us, walks with us, reminds us of the Word, and speaks with us. He provides the due word in due season in our lives. He reminds us of the promises and blessings of God. He is our comfort! e. The Holy Spirit also gives us a foretaste of eternity and helps us to see just how glorious life in God is and will be. When we have the deepest of tragedies, we can lean on the Spirit to comfort us. f. In everything from persecution to the loss of a dear one in Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells within us and provides us with the comfort that only our loving God can give. g. Illustration: When I get sick, and I hate the feeling of being sick, I always call my parents. Just last year when I cut part of my thumb, I speed dialed my dad. Can my parents do anything for me 180 miles away when I m in pain or sick? No And yes! Just hearing their voice reassures me. And it s almost like a bit of the home I grew up in to get their insight and hear them talk to me. Being comforted by the Holy Spirit is like calling home and hearing those familiar and comforting voices from people who took care of you when you were sick. h. Application: We have the comfort of God right inside of us. God s Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are His children, and so also, the Comforter does comforting the best. He is the one to comfort us when we are being persecuted. He is the one to remind us that we see our beloved saints once again in glory. He comforts us when we listen to His voice. Can you hear Him comforting you today? B. God will bring comfort for the future. 1.One day the Lord will comfort us for eternity. 6
a. Although we can apply the comfort of God to our current situation, there is indeed an eschatological flavor to this beatitude. You see, it s in the Day of the Lord at the end of human history when God will write the wrongs and injustices of our day. b. It s in the end of time that God will rapture His church and take home His children to the comfort and joy of His eternal presence. It s in the end of time that death will no longer steal a dear loved one from our presence. c. And it s all made possible by the Lord who comforts us in our troubles once and for all, just like He paid our debt on the cross once and for all. d. We were meant to feel uncomfortable here and now. We were meant to feel out of place, because this isn t our end game or our final home. e. Application: We must draw comfort from God and His Kingdom rather than from this fleeting world. There is coming a day when God will bring comfort to every righteous person in His judgment and in His bringing us home to glory. We all look forward to that day, and every moment of discomfort here prepares us for the eternal comfort of His presence. When you feel uncomfortable here, it s a great time to call out Even so, Lord, come now! Do you long for the only comfort that will satisfy your mourning? 2.Our final comfort comes in the end of days. a. The way that Luke covers this beatitude is a bit different than Matthew in its scope. Luke speaks of laughing and weeping, presenting us with pictures of the social winners and losers. b. More than Matthew, Luke speaks to the social structures of our world and the eschaton because of God s final judgment. Those who weep now will laugh later. c. Those who are in the place of humility and lowly weeping, who are struck on every side and pummeled by the evils of this world will one day laugh in joy and in a new environment. d. But in the woe, we find that those who laugh now, who are on top of the world and abuse the poor and those who weep now, those are the ones who will weep for eternity when judgment comes. e. For Luke, the idea of being blessed now speaks to the fact that we endure these sufferings with much weeping, but our blessedness comes in the fact that our laughing and our joy is just over the horizon. 7
f. While we weep in the darkness of this world and the night surrounds us at every turn, the light of dawn and comes soon for us, and we are to begin a new day of laughter and joy. Our joy comes in the morning, no pun intended! Conclusion Those who mourn receive the blessedness of God s comfort and the comfort of others in the community of the Kingdom. They are blessed because mourning is for a short period. How horrible would it be if mourning was long lived! But it is just for a short time. Comfort comes in the present and the future! And in the end, those who weep now will enjoy the laughter of the joys of eternity in heaven. We are truly blessed because in our most broken state, there is a wholeness in God and in His Kingdom that brings us comfort and laughter! Let us embrace the times of joy, and when we mourn and weep, let us know that God will comfort us in one of His wonderful ways! 8