Good morning everybody. Happy Sunday and welcome to The Edge Church. My name is Steve Van Denend and I'm one of the Pastors. I'm really glad to have you joining us today as we continue on in our sermon series that we are calling Blessed.
I think if most of us could be really honest, just for a moment, we would admit that we'd like to be blessed. Wouldn't we? We want to live a blessed life. We want to have lives that matter. We want to have lives that are fruitful and purposeful and abundant, and the good news is that God wants that for us, too.
However, maybe God's vision of blessing is a little bit different than ours. In the introduction to perhaps his most famous sermon known as The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks to us about the blessed life where he connects blessing to those who embody and display the character of the Kingdom of God, known as The Beatitudes. This is what we have been looking at together. This is where we are going to be headed this morning.
So we're going to just open up God's word together. We're going to listen to what God has to speak to us. I'd encourage you to grab a pen, grab something to write with, take some notes so that you have something to go back to — something, to reflect on, something to wrestle with, something to pray about, something that God can use to transform you — in something that you don't let go of and just forget about as God is speaking to you today. We're going to open God's word. At the end of the message, as always, I'm going to share some reflection questions with you; something just for you to think about, for you to journal about or something for you to talk about with those in your household or in your house church gathering. So let's just pray and then we'll jump into God's word together.
Father, thank you for this morning. God, thank you for this time that we have together now, Lord. We just invite you, God, to come and to minister and to speak. Lord, as we open up your word, God, I just pray, Father, that we would grab hold of what it is that you have for us today. God, that you would open up our ears to hear from you. Open our hearts to receive of you and God, I pray that we would be transformed by your word. So Holy Spirit, I just ask that you would work in every single heart today. God, thank you that it's not a mistake that we're tuned in to this message right now. God, that you planned long ago, God, that we would be exactly where we are to hear your word. So Lord, would you just speak to us today? Have your way, Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
If you have your Bible you can open it up to Matthew 5 and we're going to be focusing specifically on the third beatitude that we see in verse five. We're going to read this from the beginning because if you remember each one of the beatitudes builds upon the others.
So starting in Matthew 5:1, it says this:
Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount
5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.
The Beatitudes
He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Here's our first beatitude. Blessed are those who realize that they are spiritually bankrupt apart from God — those who are aware of their desperate need for God.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
The second beatitude. Blessed are those who grieve over their sin and in response, turn to God in repentance. Those mourners it says are blessed for they will be comforted by God's grace and God's mercy. God's forgiveness will be poured out upon them.
Here's our third beatitude:
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
This morning, I want to talk to you about the kingdom character of meekness but before we get too far into this, I want to just make something really clear for us so that we don't receive this in a way that it isn't intended for us. It would be really easy for us to read this passage or really any part of the Bible that speaks about character or behavior and fall into this trap of moralism.
Moralism is this idea that in order for you to be loved by God, in order for you to be accepted by God or received by God, that you must perform in some kind of way. It's a checklist of good and bad behaviors that put you in right standing with God. That's something called moralism and that's not Christianity. A good behavior or good character doesn't save you. We are saved completely by the grace of God — by putting our trust and our hope in him and what he has done for us. His death on a cross for our sin, his resurrection to life in order to give us eternal life through him and bring us into relationship with God forever. Salvation rests on God's work and not ours. We have to keep that front and center as we read through scripture or we'll receive it wrongly.
So while we're not saved by our good works or our good behavior or good character, we are saved to good works and to reflect God's character. So as Christians, we're not moralists but we do believe in morality. Morality is simply how God's spirit is working in us to make us more like God — to be people who reflect his heart and his character and his design for us as image bearers of God.
This ultimately is the aim of the beatitudes. We find this in Matthew 5: 16. In this same sermon, The Sermon of the Mount, Jesus; speaking about character, speaking about our works, he says, let your light shine before mankind, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. This is the goal of our character, of our behavior, of our works. Jesus is uninterested in manners or personalities for their own sake. Jesus' aim is that we might display God, that we might reflect and represent him in the world in such a way that people see him in us and turn towards him, that our lives cause others to praise and glorify God.
So Jesus tells us here that one of these God exalting, God reflecting characteristics of his kingdom, his meekness — blessed are the meek Jesus says. Now I think oftentimes when we hear the word meek, we tend to equate it with being soft or being weak. But remember that Jesus himself was described as meek and humble in heart and I'm pretty sure that none of us would use the word weak to describe Jesus. Meekness is not weakness.
To be meek is not to be timid, it's not to be indecisive or to be a pushover. Meekness is not someone who's lacking in confidence or conviction and it isn't cowardice. It's not indifference and it's not just being a go-along to get-along kind of person. So what then is meekness? Well that word for meek in the Greek is this word praotes. This was a word that was used to describe a soothing medicine that would bring relief, a cool breeze that would bring refreshing or a wild animal that was broken and trained in order to be useful. You could say that to be meek is to have controlled strength — it is power under control.
Medicine is really powerful. It can be used for great good and to bring about healing but it can also do great harm when it's abused and without the proper controls. The wind can bring incredible refreshing to somebody on a hot day but it can also do incredible damage when it's at full force. A wild animal that is untamed can be reckless and dangerous but one that is broken and trained is able to be useful and helpful. To be meek is not to lack power. It is rather a harnessing of great power to be used rightly. It is not used to oppress, not used to overpower but like Jesus, to be used for the benefit and the good of others — to empower, to lift up, to serve and to bless all to the glory of God. To be meek means to be gentle, to be humble, to be considerate and to be courteous.
Remember that these beatitudes, they all build upon each other. So think about this progression here. First blessed are the poor in spirit who recognize their need of God. In response then blessed are those who mourn, who feel the weight of their rebellion and sinfulness against God and so turned to him in repentance, which leads then to our third beatitude, into meekness — to humility. Meekness is the abdication of self off the throne of our life. It is yielding and submitting ourselves to the lordship of Jesus Christ. It's saying God, you are God and I am not. Lord, it's not about my way. It is your way. God, I'm not living for my own glory but I'm living for yours.
To be meek then is to reflect God's great love and goodness and grace and gentleness towards us, though we did nothing in and of ourselves to earn or deserve it. It's to reflect that love and that goodness and that grace and that gentleness towards others, regardless of whether or not we believe they have earned or deserved it.
To help give a fuller picture of meekness I want to just walk you through a little bit of scripture and I want to start in Psalm 37 because our beatitude today is either a quote or an illusion to it. Jesus said, blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Psalm 37: 11 says:
11 But the meek will inherit the land
and enjoy peace and prosperity.
Again, speaking about how the meek inherit blessing. Same idea. Now if you go up to verse nine, it tells us that those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. So, the first thing here to take note of is that the meek are those whose hope is in the Lord — that the meek are people who trust in God. Meekness is rooted in a deep conviction, a confidence that God is for you and not against you, that God is faithful and trustworthy, that his promises to you are true and that he will ultimately work out everything for your good and for his glory.
Psalm 37:1 begins by saying,
1 Do not fret because of those who are evil
or be envious of those who do wrong;
The meek are those who trust in God and they don't fret. They're not running around panicked or overwhelmed by the wickedness that surrounds them. They aren’t losing their minds because of whatever wicked group or company or political party or politician or whoever is at work because they are so deeply confident in their God. It's not that they are oblivious to the wrongdoing or that they're unaffected by it. They're just not wrecked by it because bigger than all the darkness is the God who holds their life and the entire universe in the palm of his hand. And he is good. And so their hope remains in God. They trust in him above all the wicked things that are at work against them and in the world.
This confidence in God then also curbs that urge within our flesh to avenge the wrongs that we feel have been done to us. We see this in Moses where in the book of Numbers 12:3 it tells us that he is the most meek person that lives on the face of the earth. What's interesting about that is that statement about Moses is made as he's being harshly criticized by his siblings, Miriam and Aaron. I don't know about you, if you've ever been harshly criticized by your family, or maybe even by the family of God. I know that I have, but when you think about that, how is it that you respond to such a thing? What happens in Moses' story is that Moses doesn't try to justify and defend himself. Instead God shows up and God defends him. It's the Lord that rebukes Miriam and Aaron for their words and their criticism and God vindicates his servant, Moses.
Another quality about meekness is that it refrains from revenge and defensiveness. Meekness is letting God be your defender and vindicator. It's the power to absorb adversity and criticism without lashing back and out against those who come against you. It's so easy for us to want to attack those we feel attacked us. Isn't it? It's so easy to talk down to people that we feel have talked down to us. It's so easy to hurt those who we feel have hurt us. We want to do unto others as they have done to us.
But Jesus says to us in Matthew 7:12 he says:
12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Jesus says, listen, treat others how you want to be treated, not how you feel they have treated you. Just consider Jesus for a minute — the one who stood before his accusers and said nothing to defend himself. Jesus was mocked and betrayed and lied about and spat upon and sentenced to death though he was without sin or any wrongdoing. As he hung upon that cross, he looked at those who had put him there and he said, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they're doing.”
It's in light of this character, of this meekness, that we hear Jesus' own brother James instruct the church and us with these words.
James 1:19-21
Listening and Doing
19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept [receive with meekness] the word planted in you, which can save you.
James has in mind two kinds of people here. One is a person who doesn't listen, especially to those who are in authority. Instead this is a person that is quick to speak of their own thoughts and share their own opinions and one who is quickly angered when they're challenged or someone disagrees with them. This is a person who looks to self rather than to God's word for answers and direction.
The other kind of person here is the one who is slow to speak and quick to listen. This is the person who's slow to become angry and when it comes to the word of God, this is the person who receives it humbly. They place themselves under God's word. They receive God’s word with meekness, which is really to say that a meek person is teachable. A meek person is looking to God's word for instruction — for answers, for direction. They're willing to submit their way and their thoughts and their ideas to God's way and his thoughts and his ideas and his desires. So rather than to rush and offer their own opinion, they patiently wait to hear from the Lord and what he has to say, and they're slow to become angry.
That doesn't mean that someone who's meek never gets angry, right? Like Jesus was. We remember from scripture that scene in the temple where people are selling things and taking advantage of people and Jesus goes all WWE in there. He's flipping over tables, he's driving out people with a whip. And so you might look at that and think, well how is Jesus then meek? And the answer is because ultimately meekness isn't focused on self, it's focused on God. Righteous anger isn't about our own kingdom or rights or concerns, it's about God's. It is a response to the violating of God's name and his fame and not our own. So this then is a righteous anger and not a selfish one.
The meek are those who honor God and honor others even above themselves. This is what the apostle Paul says to us in Philippians 2:3, he says:
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility honor others above yourselves,
In verse five then it says that we are to humble ourselves like Jesus humbled himself to serve. Meekness looks like a servant who honors God and honors others. Whose trust is in him and who in light of God's amazing grace and gentleness towards them, humbly and gently and graciously deals with others.
Blessed are the meek Jesus says, for they will inherit the earth. What does that mean? What is Jesus saying to his disciples and to us here? Why is that phrase important? Well, for one I believe that this promise is meant to encourage us and give us strength to continue in our meekness. At the end of the beatitudes in Matthew 5:12, Jesus says:
12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
In other words, the promise of heaven's reward is to strengthen the disciples to endure persecution and hardship with joy. In much the same way here to say that the meek will inherit the earth. It's meant to give us strength to endure opposition and hardship and yet respond with gentleness and humility, when our natural way would be to give way to our pride and respond with being offended or to retaliate or to be angry or bitter.
Secondly, this promise serves as a reminder to us that as Romans 8:17 tells us that we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. Or as the apostle, Paul says it in 1 Corinthians 3:21, he says, listen church, all things are yours. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours and you are of Christ and Christ is of God. All things are yours in Christ, which simply means God has got you. God's got you and you have him. So you don't need to spend your life in the pursuit of lesser things, trying to make your own way, or build your own kingdom or establish and defend your own name. Rather, you are free then to seek first the Kingdom of God. As Jesus said then for everything then to be added unto you.
The world says that it is the proud, it's the aggressive, it's the powerful who inherit the earth — it's survival of the fittest. But Jesus says that it is the meek, that it is the one who humbly submits to the rule and reign of Christ, whose hope is in him, whose trust is in him. That is those who gently and graciously serve and honor others who truly inherit the earth and an everlasting Kingdom with God forever.
I want to just leave you with a few questions this morning for you to consider, maybe for you to spend some time journaling, thinking about, or just to talk about today with those who are gathered with you in your house or in your house church gathering. Here are the three questions, and then I'll just pray and wrap us up today.
1. What's your biggest takeaway? As you consider Jesus saying, blessed are the meek, what stands out to you? What is it that grips your heart?
2. What characteristic of the meek most stands out to you and why? And with that then, in what ways might God be inviting you to grow in meekness?
3. What does meekness look like in your life right now? Would you say that you are pursuing the benefit and blessing of others, or is your own prosperity the driving force for your life? Is it more important to you what others think about you, or is it more important what God says and what he thinks?
I want to just pray for us to close us this morning and then encourage you just to spend a little time talking together about the meek. So let's pray:
Father, thanks for this morning. God, thanks for this time — thanks for your word. Jesus, thank you God, that for those of us who are in you, Lord, that your spirit even now is at work in us to make us more like you. So God, I pray that for every single one of us, Lord, that every one of your sons and daughters, Lord, God, that you would just continue to nurture in us a heart of meekness. God, that we would be a people who reflect your character in the earth. God, that we would be a people who display your grace, your graciousness, God, your gentleness. Lord, that we would be a humble people who just submit to you. God, that Lord, people would see you in the way, God, that we treat them and bring and give glory to you, God. Father, I pray that for those who are gathered together this morning, Lord, that this would be a time of encouragement. Lord, I pray that you would use each person gathered together, God, just to minister, to be an encouragement to each other Lord, to speak life and blessing to one another, Lord, to challenge one another. But God that you would bring about transformation and growth as we share your word together. God, let your word just continue to stir in our hearts. God, have your way in us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.