The Sermon on the Mount, Part 2

We did an overview last week of the Sermon on the Mount. This is going to be a series, I will tell you, up front, that's going to be more than three or four sermons. Yet, as I was working on this installment of it here for you today, I realized there's no need to rush through this and try to get it all in in a set amount of time, because it's pretty deep, it's pretty important, and it bears the time and is worth the time that we spend going through this. There's first, most basic and recorded sermon that we have from Jesus Christ that occupies Matthew and Luke. In Matthew, it's chapters 5, 6, and 7. I talked last week of the fact that this is probably the most quoted sermon in all of religion, but it is the most least followed at the same time. The more you look at it, the deeper you go with the teachings that are given here by Jesus in this sermon, you understand that. I had a thought as I was looking at the sermon on the Mount here, just this little bit, but looking at the setting for it. As I said last week, this was probably very well one whole sermon. It was not something chopped up and kind of reassembled by Matthew or Luke as they wrote their histories of Christ's life. This was the setting and the context, and what you're reading there is very likely one sermon that he sat down, and this is a synopsis of it, a pretty detailed synopsis, but it was a sermon given on a day, during an hour, two hours, or whatever. There on the northern shores, probably, of the Sea of Galilee. And so it is what we read. It was a sermon. It was a discourse. It is a sermon that can spawn hundreds of other sermons. But I wondered sometimes if this was given over and over again by Jesus as he taught in the synagogues and as he taught during his ministry.

Sometimes in the ministry, if we travel a lot, we have what we call a traveling sermon that we can give in multiple congregations because not everybody is going to be hearing it multiple times. And those of us reside in one congregation time, week after week after week, we can't do that.

But sometimes we can put together what we might call a traveling sermon that can fit any occasion and we can give multiple times. And I wondered if this may have been Jesus's traveling sermon that he had as he talked over and over again. He may have had certain variations on it. Somebody once said that really every minister only has about three sermons in his repertoire.

And everything else that he gives is just a variation of those three sermons and ideas that he has. And there's some truth to that because we may give hundreds of sermons and yet as individuals, as human beings, we may stick to certain themes or ideas or only have so much that we can give in some ways as well. And I think there's a little bit of truth to that. And I wonder if this may have been a standard sermon that Jesus worked from during his time.

It's just a thought. No way to prove that one way or the other. But we have examples of other teaching that he gave, obviously, in the Gospel accounts. But this one seems to be the first major address. And it was worthy of note that it was recorded by Matthew and Luke in the form that it was and has taken on the dimensions that it has throughout these years as we look at this. So what I want to do here is begin going through Matthew 5. And we can just turn there and we will go to many other scriptures in the course of the time here today. But as I brought out in my overview last week, this first section deals with what in your Bible and mine has a heading. It's called the Beatitudes or the Be Happy Attitudes. Some have termed them as well. But this is what he began and opened his mouth and began to teach as he had his disciples seated in front of him on this mountain on the shore of Galilee, the Sea of Galilee. And he began to go through this. Now, in this first section, really, that goes through verse 3 down through verse 12, as I divided it up last time, and even in most of your Bibles you'll have a marker here that shows kind of a natural division after verse 12 anyway. But you are looking at a selection of eight different attitudes that Christ brings out here. And he is describing qualities of the same group of people. There are eight qualities, beginning with the blessed or the poor in spirit. Now, we should realize that this is Christ's teaching here, at least in this initial section, about what every Christian should be. That means every Christian. That means every Christian. Did I say that it is what every Christian should be? Which means whether you're the newest member or the longest-serving member, whether you're a deacon, deaconess, whether you're an elder, long-time elder, short-time elder, midterm elder, every member. This is what every one of us should be in these attitudes that we're talking about. So he's describing one group of people, those who are Christ's disciples. The qualities that he's describing are spiritual qualities, or spiritual states. When he says here in verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit, he's not just talking about someone who is below the poverty line and whatever arbitrary line an economist might say that above this you're middle income and below this you're in poverty. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about spiritual poverty, spiritual poor, spiritually poor, or meek. These are spiritual qualities that every one of us, regardless of our job, status, income, are to develop. He's not making a sociological statement. Sometimes people have used the Sermon on the Mount, particularly these initial beatitudes, to make a statement about something sociological or advocating against wealth, as in the case of verse 3. Some denominations and groups have used this to advocate taking certain ones, taking vows of poverty. And they use this as a basis for that. And that's not necessarily what it's talking about. It's not talking about physical poverty. He's talking about people who are poor in spirit, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And it can refer to the physically poor who put their faith and their hope in God. And there are blessings that are promised here. The blessing is a matter that comes from God. He says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. These blessings come from God. That's what's important to understand. And it reflects how God looks at those who are of this particular quality of character, who mourn, who are peacemakers. And the blessing comes from God.

It's more than just happiness. As I said, some have called this the be happy attitudes. Well, blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn. It's not necessarily saying happy are those who mourn. Happy are those who are poor. That's not the initial nor the full meaning of what he's talking about here. Because happiness is really a subjective matter. You can be happy if you have lots of money.

You can be happy if you have very little money. And yet you are happy with yourself, the way you live your life, the conditions of your life. It's very subjective. The happiness or the blessing that is really being talked of here is how God looks at us. Because of where we are. Because of what we are. And because of that. We are blessed because God looks upon us as a peacemaker. We are happy in that sense because that's how God looks at us. And if God looks and sees that we are poor in spirit, that's what's important. That's really what is being focused here. And it's not necessarily that we can't be happy or it's not necessarily talking about happiness.

That gets to be very subjective as we should all understand depending upon how we live our life, what we learn to be content with and all. It's really looking at how God looks at us and what we are because of how God looks at us. And we are blessed because God looks at us as poor and understands the heart.

These are really lessons in righteousness of the heart. Not outward righteousness, but righteousness of the heart. The inner person that these are talking about. What is promised is the kingdom of God and the blessing of living this way of life now and the blessing of entering the kingdom of God in the future. That is what is promised by these attitudes and by what is described here. We experience the blessings of the kingdom of God now as the first fruits of God's plan. The fullness is going to come in the kingdom. But we are to experience a measure of that now as first fruits of God's kingdom.

So it sets a very high standard right here at the beginning that we are to work for, we have to think about, pray about, continue to come back to and understand with the help of Christ in us. I covered that last week in my introduction that when it's all said and done, the question is, is this really practical and real? Can we really be like any of this in this entire sermon? Those are legitimate questions. And the bottom line answer is there's only so much that anyone can do of and by themselves. But because these are matters of the heart, then it is the work of God's Spirit, inscribing on our heart His Word, His Law, His teaching, and the very character of Jesus Christ.

Paul said that I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me in Philippians 4. And this is where we really look at the things that we can do as Christ strengthens us, as Christ works with our lives. And it is a lifelong effort, it is a lifelong work and progress for us to live up to all of these standards. So as we go through them, there's no need for any of us to ever feel discouraged or doubt ourselves because we find we will look at a certain section and see that we are lacking, that we may not have lived up completely to every condition or quality.

But if we can look at it and learn, if we can look at it and in some cases even see where we have done the best we can, we can then ask God's help. We can be assured of that help. If we seek Him and if we go to Him in that way, He will help us to live up to these qualities. So let's get into it here in verse 3 of Matthew 5. Start looking at this first quality that is mentioned in Matthew 5 and verse 3 as He begins His sermon.

He says, Right up front, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God is brought up and shown to be the ultimate goal, the ultimate reward, eternal life in the kingdom of God. But He said, So again, it's very easy to just look at it, read it for what it says. We don't have to read into it that it's advocating a vow of poverty, get rid of all the money that you have, cut up your credit cards unless you can't pay that credit card off and you don't know how to use that.

And that's another issue all in itself. But it's not an advocating poverty and saying that, you know, give everything that you have away to others and live basically a subsistence living. That in and of itself can be a matter of pride, just as much pride as anybody who is filthy rich and cares not one wit for the poor or anyone else because of their wealth or their money. And speaking really of a poverty of spirit, a humble dependence on God. This is the key here, a humble dependence on God. Keep your place in Matthew. Let's turn back to Psalm 34.

Psalm 34.

It's a poverty of spirit because we know that, even by ourselves, we are nothing. And we need God and our lives hang every day on Him. In Psalm 34 and beginning in verse 4, in this Psalm of David, he says, I sought the Lord and He heard me. You have to seek God. You have to knock. You have to go after God. He delivered me. He heard me and delivered me from all my fears.

It would be great to be able to be delivered from all of our fears, fears that hang over us. But by seeking God, we can be. They looked to Him, verse 5, and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried out and the Lord heard Him and saved Him out of all His troubles.

The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him and delivers them. In this part of the Psalm here, the poverty or the poor man, it really is, again, speaking of someone who is laden with fears in this particular case, who seeks God and wants His help, wants to be delivered from those fears. That is a poverty of spirit. This is a poor man. An attitude that recognizes we're unable to save ourselves.

We're unable to put one foot in front of the other, and we look to God for salvation. That is the frame of mind that is described here of one who is of a poor spirit. In Isaiah 41, and down to verse 17, it says, Isaiah 66. This is a theme many places here in these passages in Isaiah. Chapter 66. Here he speaks of the type of person that God looks upon. And again, the attitude that is necessary when we seek God. Isaiah 66 in verse 1, it says, This is the poor in spirit.

This is one upon whom God looks and hears. He's not interested in what might be built for him. He's not interested in anything physical that can be erected to glorify him or somehow done in his name to further his work or his plan in one sense. Physical things don't really matter to God. It's one of the big lessons you learn from the temple experience and the destruction of two temples in Jerusalem. That buildings and physical things are not what God looks at for his worshippers and for his work.

He is looking to an attitude of mind. In this case here, it's an acknowledgment of a spiritual bankruptcy before God. You come to the point in your life, in your mind, where you realize you have no collateral to put down a down payment. You have no assets. Spiritually, we don't have anything to offer to God to merit or to buy or to even merit his sideways glance at us. We have nothing before him. And when we come to that point of view inwardly, we are getting to the point where we are poor in spirit. We recognize that we need him. That our fears and inadequacies and our humanity, of and by itself, is not enough to put for a down payment on God's time.

And then, from that point of view, we can begin to have a relationship with God. Because here he says, one who is of a poor and of a contrite spirit, on that person, when they get to that point, then I will look upon them. Then I will listen to them. How many times have you tried to, over your life, whether it was with a parent, your boss, your minister, anyone that you were wanting attention, you were wanting acknowledgement, you were wanting recognition, you were wanting validation, and you wanted them to look at you?

How many times do we know that we don't have a person's attention if we don't see their eyes, if they don't turn and look at us, and we are pouring ourselves out, we are desperately wanting them to pay attention to us, and they won't? Whether it's, again, your child, and it was your parent, or some other adult, and you desperately wanted attention and you didn't get it, or that boss that you're trying to sell some idea to, and you've got the greatest ideas and sliced bread, and they won't give you the time of day, and you know that you don't have their time because they won't even turn and look on you.

Well, in verse 2 here, God says, it's on this person that I will look. If we ever want to God's attention for our need, for whatever's taking place in our life, then this poorness, this poverty of spirit, where we recognize of Him by ourselves, we don't have it, is what we have to come to, to get Him to look upon us, to acknowledge us in that sense. And that's, you can call it repentance, you can call it humility or whatever we want, but this is what is being talked about in terms of an attitude in the frame of mind to get God's attention.

Back in Matthew 5, when Jesus said, of such, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This was the first statement in the sermon. This was the point number one in the sermon, and it should have told everyone assembled that afternoon quite a load. It should have told them what they were signing on for, what they were doing by following this rabbi, this teacher, this holy man, however this group, if there were hundreds or multiple hundreds there that were before Him this day, and they had seen His miracles, they had already heard of His reputation.

And remember back in Chapter 4, Matthew, it says that He healed the sick, He preached repentance, and people came from all over to hear this man. He was giving them hope, there was an excitement, there was a buzz in Galilee, and they came from the other side of Jordan, and this was quite a trip for them. This was, you know, it was like somebody came from St.

Louis, or came from Pittsburgh, in terms of the time and the effort that we would have to make to come to, let's say, Indianapolis, to hear a message today. For somebody to come from the other side of Jordan and to walk into the area of Galilee in the northern part of what is now Israel, it was quite an effort for them to make to come and do that. And they wanted something. They expected something. And the very first statement Jesus says is, poverty of spirit. That's how you will see, that is how you will inherit the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven. From this statement, they should have understood what they were signing on for.

It was not a restoration of the Kingdom of Israel. It was not a terrestrial Kingdom of Judah or Israel, as the prophets had prophesied. King David was not going to come to life. They were not going to throw off the yoke of Rome and establish the free state of Palestine, Judah, Israel, whatever they wanted to call it. That was not going to happen. And they were told this up front. Jesus did not deal in fine print. You never get really mad when you don't read the fine print.

And you find out with the first bill, for the first time you miss that credit card payment, that that is going to sock you with a $30 or $40 late fee, and could even change the interest rate. And so I didn't know that. And that's because you didn't read the fine print of that 15-page document when you got that credit card. Jesus didn't deal in fine print.

He dealt in big, big capital letters. And he told them, we're not doing this now. The promise is not now. That had already been settled, again, back in his confrontation with the devil. Remember, Satan took him up and offered him all the kingdoms of the world, if he would bow down and worship him. And Jesus said, you know, get the hints. Get away. Christ was not there for a kingdom today in his time. That was settled in that debate, and in the first point of the first major sermon that he gives in his address.

And so they couldn't look at a nation or a state as what they were going for. That's why the Pharisees didn't pay him any attention. They already had their kingdom. They already had their land. They had their arrangement made with Rome. And they had their political power. It was not what the zealots desired. There were a group of people in Judah during this time of Jesus that they were called zealots. They were fierce. They were passionate. They wanted Rome to go home. They were the Shiites of their day. And they wanted those Roman soldiers to pack up, get on their ships, and sail back westward across the Mediterranean and leave them alone.

Finally, in 66 AD, they got enough munitions and arms together. They had an uprising, and they killed a few in Galilee. And they created this uprising that they were going to throw off the yoke of Rome and create their own state. And the 10th Roman Legion came in and mowed them down. They destroyed Jerusalem. And a few of them escaped Jerusalem through the tunnels.

They just recently found the tunnels in Jerusalem that led to the outskirts of the city. And they found some artifacts in there and certain inscriptions. And the archaeologists realized that this was how people left the city during the siege and got out and down into the Judean desert probably in one sense. They just recently uncovered that. And a group of them went down to a place called Masada. You've heard of Masada in Israel, this huge mountain fortress built by Herod. And they withstood the 10th Legion for several years until they finally built a ramp up to the top and they were able to get into it.

And when they did, they found that everyone there had committed suicide the night before. You can go to Masada, you can sit in a very little synagogue that they had on top of that mountain.

And you can sit there and know that this was where these people drew lots that night to kill themselves. That's how the zealots ended. They were not able to hold on to their rebellion. They could not set up a kingdom of Judah. Masada, the ignominy of death, was their reward. That was not what Jesus was offering his followers in the first century. He was offering a poverty of spirit. And it's an attitude that is a much different attitude than even is found at times within the church. In Revelation 3 and verse 17, there's a description of the church that is called the... it is the church at Laodicea, Revelation 3 and verse 17.

And it's a different spirit than is what is described here in Matthew 5 and verse 3. Revelation 3 and verse 17, as Christ speaks to the church at Laodicea, he says, You say, because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing. Is that a poverty of spirit? I don't think so. It's the direct opposite of what he spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount.

And he said, you don't know, verse 17, that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. So even the church, the very body of Christ, can forget this basic teaching. We have an example of it there, and it speaks down through the ages to the church at any time and at any place, and certainly speaks to us today, to not think that we have it all, know it all, or that we are all.

The church, the individuals, the church will reflect only what the individuals have. And we begin by the important spirit, recognizing that we must depend on God for every aspect of our needs and of our life. Let's go back to Matthew 5 and look at verse 4, the second trait. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who mourn. To sorrow, to cry. That's what is being spoken of here, to sorrow. We feel sorrow when we lose something. We feel sorrow when we mourn when we lose someone. At death, we certainly sorrow.

Paul talks about in 1 Thessalonians 4, he said, you know, he didn't want the people to sorrow as those without hope. We mourn when there is a loss of something. And when we are in mourning, when we sorrow, what do we want? What is it that we would really like to have when we are mourning the loss of something? Well, we want someone to comfort us. In my experience, that's what most of us would want. When my parents died, I wanted somebody to comfort me by talking about them or just even saying you're sorry for their loss.

Those are very powerful words, certainly said in sincerity. But when someone says, I'm sorry for your loss at a time of mourning, especially when someone dies, that means a great deal. Don't ever underestimate that. Even though you may not have known the person, but if you know the one to whom you're speaking, and you even know that they are in mourning, to acknowledge their mourning, their sorrow, is a major step in helping and encouraging and comforting a person.

In this verse, Christ is talking of the sorrow of repentance, of an attitude of mind that recognizes there's been a loss. And here, in this sense, we might mourn the loss of many things, in terms of fulfilling this particular teaching here and those who mourn. It's not just something far beyond a time of the loss of a friend, a mate, another human being through death. That's not the only time when one might have sorrow and mourn. We might mourn the loss of innocence. The loss of innocence.

Think about that for a moment. At times in my adult life, I've longed to be able to go back to a time of childhood innocence, before I knew the hard, cruel world of the adult world, that people can let you down, that people don't always carry through with their word, that people can be mean.

Think back at whatever time in your life you learned some of those realities. With a parent, with another adult, and your innocence began to be chipped away.

I've done many times wish that I could go back, or that I didn't have some of these things that have scarred my life through the years that I've had to work with, sometimes work through, but we're often to not just work with, because you don't always get rid of them.

And so we mourn, we can mourn a loss of innocence that comes with just the challenges of life and realities of what we deal with. We can mourn the loss of righteousness.

But we know that we have let down and we have sinned, and we have lost righteousness by an action that we have done. We can mourn that, and there may be a time that we should.

And we truly sorrow over our lack of righteousness, and what it has done to ourselves, and to our self-respect, to our conscience.

And we are sorry, we are truly sorry, and we mourn that.

Jesus says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. There will be comfort.

Sometimes it's the weeping over the sin of others.

Jesus' statement here is even talking about that as we see other people's sins, we are going to mourn and weep over that.

Let's go back to Psalm 119. Psalm 119.

Psalm 135.

Psalm 135.

Psalm 135. Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your statutes.

Psalm 136. Rivers of water run down from my eyes because men do not keep your law.

Interesting. Reflection.

Because others don't keep God's law, you would assume that the psalmist here, or I would ever adopt this position, that we are certainly keeping God's law.

But we get to the point of crying, as this verse is describing, because men do not keep God's law.

We see our world, we see what is taking place, and we cry for that.

This week, some poor, misguided, unfortunate life decided to kill eight other people before he took his in a shopping mall out in Omaha, Nebraska.

I'm sad to say that when I was watching just the live play-by-play of it, I get really irritated so much when these news stations focus on a tragedy like that.

Last week, it was somebody that went into Hillary Clinton's campaign headquarters in New Hampshire and held people hostage on Friday afternoon.

Then, on this past Wednesday, the cameras on this Von Mar store at a shopping mall in Omaha, they go on and on, speculating, they don't know what's going on.

They just focused on that. They didn't know anything, and yet they just go on and on and on.

I remember just turning the channel, because I just didn't want to focus on it. Then, later on, you find out just what was taking place behind those walls.

In this case, nine people died, including the shooter.

Again, you gauge your reaction to it.

Unfortunately, we've become so numb to these tragedies that we get to the point where we don't even want them to intrude on our time and our space.

I will admit to feeling that way at times.

Then, when you read the headline the next morning, in the paper or see it, you realize you start to think about those eight people.

They were there just after noon shopping, and they got caught, time and chance. That's all.

That was the only thing they did wrong, which just happened to be there that day when this nut came through.

We can mourn over that. Maybe some of us do weep tears running down our eyes because of the sins that take place out there.

If you do, don't be ashamed of it.

If we don't, then it's something for me and others of us, perhaps, to think about as we react to what takes place.

Ezekiel 9, verse 4, we don't have to turn there, but God told the prophet to go through the streets of Jerusalem and put a mark on those who sigh and cry for the sins of Israel, the sins of Judah in that case.

Who sigh and cry, who mourn for the sins.

We have to be careful not to let ourselves get caught up to where we become numbed and immune to mourning for what takes place in our world and in our life.

Even though we are victims of the 24-7 news cycle and the satellite news and the fact that these things from across the country, any point in the country, any place in the world, suffering can be brought into our life, into our living room, and we can't have enough of our time, and we're made aware of it. And sometimes we don't know what to do with it. Sometimes we react and say, I don't want to have to face this.

I've got my own challenges. We all do.

And so finding that balance with what we have to deal with in a modern, technologically adept world where it comes to us the moment we turn the television on, flip that computer on and get the news or whatever, we're going to be exposed to it. Then we have to learn how to deal with it. Jesus said to mourn and to have this, and it reflects many aspects of life.

In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul even talked about this in regard to the Corinthian congregation. 1 Corinthians 5. This wasn't CNN news of what was taking place in Thailand. This was local church news right here. 1 Corinthians 5.

Immorality, big sexual scandal within the congregation.

And what did Paul say about it? He said in verse 1, of course, it's actually reported of what this immorality, and such is not even named among the Gentiles. So they had even put their own twist on it in the Church of God at Corinth that even would have made the...and keep in mind, Corinth was the Vegas of the Greek world.

What went on in Corinth stayed in Corinth.

They were the original purveyors of that idea.

And church members, by their life, were actually putting an even more sordid twist on a lifestyle. And that's what he's saying. They don't even do this outside your walls. And you are. But what did he say in verse 2? He said, you're puffed up and have not rather mourned.

So he spoke right here to the members and he said, there's no mourning here. These people needed to hear a series on the Sermon on the Mount. And Paul goes right to it right here and he says, there's no sorrow for the loss of innocence, for the loss of integrity for the church, for this sin taking place within your midst. You're not mourning it. He said, you should, but you're puffed up.

And this should be dealt with. But there has to be a mourning that takes place. And they didn't have it. They needed it. On 2 Corinthians 12...

2 Corinthians 12 is the... 2 Corinthians is the follow-up to the tongue-lashing that he gave them in the 1 Corinthians. And he comes down in verse 20 and says, I fear lest when I come I shall not find you such as I wish, and that I shall be found by you such as you do not wish.

Lest there be contentions and jealousies and outbursts of wrath and selfish ambitions and backbiting, whisperings, conceits and tomb-motes. Lest when I come again my God will humble me among you, and I shall mourn for many who have sinned before and have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication and lewdness which they have practiced. So through this he was basically telling them that he didn't want to come and find that. But he said he didn't want to have to mourn for many. So mourning can be for the sins of others to a point where there is action taken. And we might, and shouldn't certainly, mourn even over our own sins. But ultimately, when we go back to what Matthew 5 and verse 4 says, this mourning leads to comfort. Because no matter what we might mourn over, if it's someone else's sins, if it's the sins of a land, of a people, a nation, if it's the loss of innocence, if it's what we have done, ultimately, through that mourning process where there is a recognition of sin, there is a recognition of loss, there comes to a point where he says, and there is a promise as part of this back in Matthew 5 and verse 4, we shall be comforted. They shall be comforted. God does not believe anyone who is of this frame of mind, of his disciples, without comfort, without encouragement. That is going to come from God. In Isaiah 61, this is a prophecy of Christ. And it's what Christ himself quoted in Luke 4 when he stood up and gave a sermon in the synagogue in Nazareth. Isaiah 61, verse 1, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor and to heal the brokenhearted, those who mourn, those who sorrow, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison, to those who are bound. This is a spiritual imprisonment, a spiritual imprisonment that comes as a result of the binding through sin or through the loss that is there. That comfort comes from God. Back in Luke chapter 2, when Jesus was brought into the temple as an infant, there's an interesting story there in Luke chapter 2.

There was a man in the temple in Jerusalem named Simeon. And he's mentioned just in this one spot in Luke chapter 2. And it's mentioned in connection with his desire to see the Savior, verse 25 of Luke 2.

Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord Christ. And so he came by the Spirit into the temple, and when his parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him in his arms and blessed God. I won't read all that he said here, but this is a man whose life at this point was devoted to seeing the consolation of Israel, the Lord's Christ, the Lord's Messiah.

This man was just, it says, in verse 25, and he was devout. He mourned. He wanted to see something. You wish he was...one of those stories of biblical character you wish he just knew a whole lot more about, but you get the sense that this man had lived and seen a lot, and he had come to a point where, because of his character and just God singling this man out, he had been told, he had been promised that he would see the promise of the Christ. And he was there when this happened in the temple, and he saw it.

He wanted to see the consolation of Israel, the one who would bring comfort, and he saw him as a child. And then he died. He could die in peace. And eventually he did. He blessed him in verse 34.

Simeon blessed him and said to Mary, Behold, this child is destined for the fallen rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against. That the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. So he played a part in this entry of Jesus as a baby into the temple in this early part of the story, and he saw the consolation of Israel.

He was one that mourned, and he waited, and God gave him that. Let's go back to Matthew 5 and verse 5.

A lot of people have fun with this particular verse. I remember I think a lot of atheists really get upset with this. Ted Turner, who is a self-professed atheist, has made a lot of statements I've read about this particular verse here in the meek. And if you know anything about Ted Turner, he's certainly not meek in his approach to life and business and certainly religion. When his wife Jane Fonda got born again, that was all he could take, and that marriage came to a conclusion. But, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Now, a contradiction in the biggest blazing light you could ever put up there. How are the meek ever going to inherit the earth? You take with boldness what you want. You build your empire, your life, your fortune. You take it by force. You take it by aggression. You take it by hard work. You take it by bluff sometimes. And certainly not by anything that would be considered to be meekness in that sense. And some can look at this verse and say that this is just talking about a very limp-wristed approach toward life, toward Christianity. And again, without understanding what it's talking about, it can cause a person to say, I don't want anything to do with that way of life. I want nothing to do with that lifestyle. Again, not understanding really what Jesus is talking about and what it means. And in fact, the reality of this concept of being meek requires more strength, more courage, more bravery than any of us could muster by ourselves in any series of lifetimes. This indeed takes a man and woman who is very, very tough. You think of a tough person that you've ever met and seen and multiplied out. They're not talking about this. I've seen some tough men. I've seen tough-looking women. In terms of just physically, you say, I don't think I'd want to tangle that person. And that isn't anywhere near the spirit and the quality that is being spoken of here in verse 5 in terms of meekness. The word means to be gentle. It means to be humble. It means considerate, courteous. And to do any of those and anything else, any other adjective you could put with it, really requires self-control. Because you're not going to be courteous or humble, self-effacing or gentle, unless you are in control of yourself. And as we might all be able to admit, there are times when we have lost control. And we have said things, we have done things, we have flown into rages, and we are not in control. We can all probably cite examples of our own life like that and certainly cite it with others as well. But it's talking about self-control and a gentleness of spirit by which we find rest, by which we find control. It's an attitude that comes with a true evaluation of ourselves. Again, it comes back to, again, a humbleness where we recognize that we are sinners.

And it speaks to a true estimate of really what we can do. And in our mind and in our most evaluation, we come to think of ourselves as a sinner. Okay? How many times have we done that? Kind of like that publican that Jesus talked about that was in the temple and he was beating his breast. And just saying, God be merciful to me as sinner. Whether it was when we were baptized or when we prepared to think about the Passover service and we come to certain points. Or even if we've let down, been convicted of a sin, unrighteous behavior, and we're seeking forgiveness of God, and we admit that we're sinners.

And we can admit that in our heart, and we can achieve a level of meekness where we recognize our true measure and what we can do and what we can't do. And we come to that.

Now, if I were to ask any of you here, how many of you have ever come to that in your heart? I would expect that some of you would raise your hand. I'm not going to embarrass you, it's not one of those things where I'm going to ask anybody to raise their hand.

But I would say that any of us at various times, we've come to a point where we recognize in our minds and in our heart, we recognize there's a level of meekness we come to and we say, I'm a sinner. I'm a wretch. I can really be a mess-up. And we can say that in our heart.

Fine.

But let me ask you this. What if someone came up to you after church? And right about midway through toward the back here in the middle of the aisle, came up to you after church, looked you in the eye, maybe even pecked you on the chest.

And said, you're a screwball.

You're a mess.

You're lousy. Whatever would really push your button.

And there were people close enough, we hadn't all scattered, and heard what enough people would begin to turn around and wonder what was going on. And you were being publicly berated by someone else and told off for what you were. And just this morning, you'd said to God all the same things about yourself in private in your prayer. But now somebody comes and does it to you publicly. What's going to be your reaction?

Do you want to punch their lights out? Do you want to scream back at them? Do you want to poke them on the chest?

What's your reaction?

Everything you're saying is true.

Everything you're saying is true.

They can even cite evidence, chapter and verse.

But they're doing it publicly.

How do you handle that?

That would be a test of our meekness.

That would be a test of just exactly how meek we really are in light of the meaning of this word that we are dealt with here.

If we're meek, we'll know how to take it and we'll know how to handle such criticism.

It's found in the example of Moses back here in Numbers 12. Let's turn back and look at that.

Numbers 12.

Because Moses had that happen to him.

And it was done by his own sister.

It would have been bad enough if it was Aaron or some other leader of the tribes of Israel, but this was his sister, Miriam.

Number one is a woman, number two is his sister, number three is publicly.

Miriam and Aaron, verse 1, spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married.

For he had married an Ethiopian woman.

So they said, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses?

Has he not spoken through us also?

And the Lord heard it.

And it was more than just God. There were other leaders and other people. This was done publicly.

Public berating of Moses by Miriam, who it seems led it here, and by the subsequent story, what had happened to her in the leprosy, she seemed to be the one leading it.

And it goes on to say, and this was one of those insertions by the later scribes, Moses didn't write this about himself.

But in verse 3 it says, Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.

Now did he scream back at Miriam and Aaron? Did he justify himself? Did he set up for it or whatever? No.

Suddenly, says the Lord, said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, come out, you three, to the tabernacle of meeting.

And so they came out. The Lord came down in the pillar of cloud, and he went through of what took place here in the story.

And he was very happy with Miriam and Aaron. And you know, later on, Moses prayed for Miriam that God would heal her of the leprosy.

So he wanted her to be healed. He didn't harbor any lasting grudge against Miriam.

Again, that speaks to his meekness. And when you see the whole story here, we don't have the time to go through it all. He was challenged by his sister, and he prayed for her.

And we don't have any record here of him arguing back with her in this particular case.

It would be just like if you and I were accosted and confronted by somebody in public and said things were said to us about us.

And in some cases, we may have even admitted to the same faults in our own prayers and in our heart.

But it's how we deal with it. It's how we react to it.

Back in Matthew, this word for meekness is a very interesting word. And it means this gentleness, this humility.

I've always liked the way that William Barclay in his book on New Testament words puts this, as he explains this word that is translated meek.

He calls it Christian gentleness. And he says that it is the secret of composure.

We might put it this way. The man who is meek is the man who is always angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time.

The man who is angry at the right time but never angry at the wrong time.

You can be meek and have an anger at unrighteousness, at injustice, and have emotion and get riled up and know when to do it, but is never angry at the wrong time.

That gets back to self-control and composure. That is the key that is being spoken of here.

He goes on, what Barclay does in his book, and he says that he uses the example of a horse that was once wild but has become obedient to the bit and the bridle.

The power of a horse, which is tremendous, is brought under control by a bridle and a bit. James talks about this in terms of the tongue. He uses that example there.

But speaking of this gentleness that comes with the control, he says, Herein lies the secret of the meaning of meekness. There is gentleness, but behind the gentleness there is the strength of steel.

For the supreme characteristic of the man who is meek is that he is the man who is under perfect control.

It is not a spineless gentleness, a sentimental fondness, or a passive quietism. It is a strength under control.

A strength under control. Never angry at the wrong time.

And the example of Moses is a pretty good one there.

A person who is truly meek is amazed that God and other human beings can even think of them as well as they might, because of the inner feeling that we have, and is amazed that we might be even treated as well as we do.

And it gives us the control then to be gentle, humble, sensitive, and patient in dealings with others.

Again, the Apostle Paul used that in his dealings with the church at Corinth.

He said he wanted to be meek when he came to them. Back in 2 Corinthians 10. 2 Corinthians 10.

In verse 1, he says, Paul, myself, am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.

Paul was responsible for dealing with the problem in the church at Corinth.

He had dealt with it, but the actions that had to be taken was more than just putting someone out of the church.

It was working to restore that person, to restore the church, and to teach the church. He says here at this point in the second letter, From the distance when he wrote his letter, he was pretty bold. He was pretty aggressive.

But had he been there, he's saying, I would be meek and I would deal with it in a gentle way.

And it expresses an approach to dealing with people, to dealing with situations, and having control.

Paul had to deal with the problems of other people in the role of the minister.

But he's saying here that he did it in a spirit of meekness that allowed people to return when the sin had been changed and repented of.

That's the importance. That's the key there. Let's go back to Matthew 5 and verse 6 and look at the fourth quality.

He said, It's one thing to be poor in spirit and to mourn and to repent of something in the past, which is certainly part of it.

But here he's talking about hungering and thirsting for righteousness, for they, he says, shall be filled.

To hunger and thirst for righteousness, just like we would for a glass of water, for a morsel of food, a hot sandwich, or a plate of, you know, roast beef and mashed potatoes and gravy.

Whatever it is that we would really yearn for, we hunger for that. We thirst for a cool glass of water on the day of atonement or after working all afternoon in the yard and a hot summer afternoon.

We have this thirst and we have this hunger that is built up and we want something to take care of it.

He says, you will be filled. And he's speaking again in a spiritual sense, not talking about food and water.

But he's really speaking to an attitude of moving forward because it's one thing to be poor in spirit, to recognize that we don't have anything, collaterally, to offer God.

It's another thing to be mourning the loss and to sorrow, something in the past.

But he's saying here that we've got to move forward from that. We have to move forward by hungering to do better.

By thirsting and desiring to do better, wanting the power of the Holy Spirit.

And God satisfies and will satisfy those who seek first the kingdom.

Who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

And you can look at that from a legal form of righteousness.

You can look at it as a moral righteousness and how we live our lives.

One can hunger and thirst even after social righteousness.

To want and to desire all of the poverty to be relieved of everyone in society.

To have all of the AIDS clinics emptied out and people healed.

A social righteousness.

That's where a lot of religious people, evangelicals and others are today.

It seems to be the great movement to deal with social righteousness.

We've come back full circle in some ways in terms of American Protestantism.

And the leading thought and movement of so many is to deal with poverty, third world poverty.

And health issues and healing, especially in Africa.

That's a social righteousness that is a desire to change and to focus on.

Legal, moral, social, righteousness, all of these are involved here in the sense of what Jesus is talking about.

It's really seeking and desiring the ultimate fruit to the kingdom of God.

But it's a matter of moving forward.

Hungering and thirsting for a better life, for a better community, for a better world. And desiring that, but recognizing that we're all going to thirst and hunger for it.

And the world is going to until the time of the kingdom of God.

Christ spoke of water from Him that would ultimately quench the thirst of all.

In John 4, John 4, verse 13, when he was talking to the Samaritan woman, the well in Samaria.

Jump into the middle of this story in verse 13.

Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again.

Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. Whoever drinks, pulls water up from this well or any other well, is going to thirst again.

Three hours, twelve hours.

But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.

But the water that I give him will become in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life.

He's speaking of the Holy Spirit.

In John 7, in verse 37, He spoke on that last day of the feast.

He said, Whoever comes to me, I will give rivers of living water to.

And He ends the thirst.

He's speaking of the power of the Holy Spirit that will ultimately quench the thirst and provide the need for the hunger that is there in a person's life.

This is going to continue throughout this life.

It was extant during Jesus' time.

The hunger and thirsting is pushing forward.

Moving beyond. Desiring to be better.

To create a better life for ourselves and for those of whom we come in contact in our sphere of influence and what we do.

And seeking first the Kingdom of God in that sense.

Revelation 7, Revelation 7, speaks to the points to the time when this will be dealt with. Revelation 7, verse 16.

And this vision of John here at this point.

Those who are at the throne of God, verse 15, they serve Him night and day, and He who sets on the throne will dwell among them, speaking of those whose robes have been made white in the blood of the Lamb.

Verse 16, it says, It is not until we enter the Kingdom of God that that thirst will be taken care of, and that hunger will finally be taken care of.

The sun shall not strike them nor any heat, for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters.

God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.

So that is a never-ending quest.

This hungering and thirsting for righteousness doesn't end until the time of the Kingdom of God.

These first four Beatitudes, Qualities, however we call them, they deal with an attitude and approach toward God, where we are poor of spirit, we mourn, we meek, and we hunger and thirst.

The last four deal with an approach to our fellow human beings.

We'll save that for next time.

But I want you to think about just this.

And be studying this and thinking on it, in terms of how our lives are impacted by this sermon.

This is the sermon for the ages.

It's the most important sermon that Jesus gave.

It's the least understood and the least obeyed.

Let's determine to learn from this so that we might be able to say that it is the one that we most hunger for, thirst after, and desire to obey in our own life.