The Sermon on the Mount, Part 2

Good morning, everyone! A few weeks ago, my last time here, I gave the introduction to a sermon series that I want to continue here this morning, and I appreciate Mr. O'Ree's sermonette, because in many ways it works as a very good introduction to what is my topic, and that is an in-depth examination of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. I gave an introduction of that in my last sermon, and so with this sermon, I intend to begin going through the subject in detail.

We're not going to cover it all in one or two or three sermons. It'll take several, and I decided once I got into this that it would take the time to really make it a study, and an examination of this very critical sermon that we have recorded in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, called the sermon on the Mount. And the instruction that Jesus has for each of us in terms of that, if I could borrow that phrase, a job description for the world tomorrow.

Because when we look at what is encapsulated in this instruction, it is the essence of Christian thinking and character, the profound thoughts of God, and the ways of the kingdom. And studying these teachings of Jesus put us near the kingdom of God, and get down to the very heart and fiber and soul of the message and the essence of the kingdom of God, and the qualities that describe the people who will make up the kingdom of God. There are qualities here.

As we look at this first section, if we can just turn over to Matthew 5, we're going to start going through what is called the Be-Attitudes, the Be-Happy Attitudes, as some call it. The statements that Jesus makes here in Matthew 5, beginning in verse 3, where he goes through eight qualities that are described here of a group of people. They are Christ's teachings of what every Christian should be. They are Christ's statements of what every Christian should be. And that means every Christian. That means every one of us, no matter how long we have been a part of the church, no matter how new we may be, whether we are the pastor, an elder, a member, it applies to everyone.

This is not a description for one group of people within the church to the exclusion of others. These are descriptions for every one of us as we stand before God. So we strip away length of time. We strip away gender. We strip away rank, ordination, status, whatever we want to say that sometimes designates us within the church. And these apply to every one of us. This is a description for all of us within the church of the qualities that are described of a spiritual condition, a spiritual state for us to develop.

Christ is not making in these statements here a sociological statement against wealth or status. He's not advocating vows of poverty when he says, blessed are the poor. This is not a statement to build a whole structure of society, whether you call it socialism or communism or monasticism. This is not really what Jesus is getting at. Some have taken these statements and built whole systems and structures and trying to rearrange even the whole nature of Jesus' ministry and his teachings by certain statements here. That's not the case. When he talks of being poor in spirit and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, he's referring to a spiritual state of mind.

He can't be talking about those who are physically poor. Yes. One who struggles to make ends meet, who doesn't have vast sums of money, is going to perhaps be a little bit closer to putting faith and hope in God for the next meal or the next rent payment or whatever it might be. That may be very well true, but it's not necessarily advocating that as a way of life over and above anyone else for a whole grouping of people. So they are qualities that talk about spiritual states that all of us are to develop.

And the blessings that are promised that we see here are things that come from God. He says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Only God has the ability to bestow the kingdom of heaven. The blessing is a matter of what comes from God and reflects how he looks at those who are of this particular character. And so this is how we understand the blessings.

It's more than even just talking about happiness. We say about the be happy attitudes. And in one sense, that's not a full description that helps us to really understand the nature of all of these statements here. Because happiness is really a subjective matter. It can be very, very relative in terms of our happiness.

A person who has very little compared to someone who has a great deal can be far happier, far happier, as a person in their state as they have developed their life, understood who they are, where they are, what they're going to be, can be far happier than someone with vast amounts of wealth or money or titles or positions.

Happiness, then, is a subjective matter. It's relative to the individual. What is being stated here is how God looks at us and what we are because of that. It's how God looks at us. And that is if we are poor in spirit, if we are peacemakers and so on in this way. What He promises ultimately is the Kingdom of God, the blessing of living this way of life now and the blessing of entry fully into the Kingdom of God in the future. Certainly we experience the blessings of the Kingdom now as first fruits.

We are first fruits in that developmental phase of God's harvest and His plan of salvation. We have received God's Spirit. We have come, in that sense, into possession of the knowledge and the understanding and the ways and the teachings and the life of the Kingdom of God. We have not fully entered into the Kingdom of God at this point. It's not here. We struggle with this present evil world, as Paul described it.

We are not fully in the Kingdom of God. But in another sense, in the sense that you and I have come to Christ, we have accepted Jesus as our Savior, and we have received God's Spirit. Paul says that we have been translated. In Colossians, he talks about we are translated into the Kingdom of God. That Kingdom has come to us in that sense, that we have the responsibility to live and the blessings that come from living that way. We have dedicated our life to living the laws, the values, the principles of the Kingdom of God now, in this life, in anticipation of the fullness of the Kingdom coming in the future.

So we experience it now as a part of the first fruits of God's plan. The fullness will come in the Kingdom. So the teaching that is expressed in these Beatitudes, and really the entire sermon, is really a high standard to which we strive with the help of Christ to live. I talked a little bit about that in my earlier sermon on the subject, but it does take the help of God through the Holy Spirit to do that.

It is not impossible. It is a tension that is put out before each one of us, the ideal, as opposed to the reality of who we are and how we live and the frailties of the flesh. And that tension that we kind of struggle with, these opposites, and kind of like a magnetic opposites that in a sense hold us into a position before God and hold us out apart from the world, not quite in the Kingdom of God as a description of where we are as we work to live by the principles and the teachings of this sermon in all of its depths.

So let's look at it. We're going to only get through a few of the principles here. These first three is really all I plan to go through here this morning. But let's go ahead and jump right into it in Matthew 5, verse 3, as Jesus opened his mouth and began to teach and give this sermon of which we have a pretty accurate and thorough outline or synopsis of what he said. And he said, first of all, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

What he's speaking of here is a humble dependence on God. Again, it's not a call to poverty and a vows of poverty where we give everything we have to the poor and an obligation to live like that. Some have taken it to that understanding, but that's not what he is addressing. He's talking about a humble dependence upon God. And of such, he said, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Let's notice a few Scriptures here from other sections of the Scripture to understand. You might want to put your 3x5 or your black ribbon there in Matthew 5. We'll come back to it. But let's go back to Psalm 34. Psalm 34. Look what we learned here. Psalm 34 and verse 4. The Psalm of David, he says, I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to him, and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed. The 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. So this is speaking here of an attitude of seeking God and looking to Him for deliverance, looking to Him for help, and crying out to God. An attitude that recognizes that we're unable to save ourselves, and we look to God for salvation. And we look to God for those things in our life we choose to place in His hands. We get up, and we go to our jobs, and we work, and we recognize we've got to earn money. We can't expect God just to knock on our door through somebody every day, or on the first of every month, and hand us a check.

We do have to work, and we have to be productive. But there is also other elements of our life where, through time and understanding, we recognize we have to depend on God. And we place the struggle in God's hands. And we recognize that by ourselves, we're not able to accomplish it. There are certain things that we work as hard as we can, but then with the other hand or with the other side of our brain, we realize this is something bigger than us, and this is up to God.

And He'll have to do this in His time and way as well. I mentioned some of our issues that we deal with organizationally within the Church, and this principle can apply there. That, you know, the vision never has to be a part of the people of God if we're poor in spirit.

If we recognize that we are not able to save ourselves, come to certain conclusions and certain matters, and we look to God, and we depend on Him, and we seek Him, and we understand that our faces are going to have to be turned toward Him, and we recognize our own inabilities. At the same time, we stand up in full dignity as beings with a mind and a heart and a desire, and yet all of that tempered by the love, the joy, and the patience of the Holy Spirit of God. It's a frame of mind that He is speaking of here of those who are able to see God, and as a result of that presence of God in our life, God dwells with us. Turn over to Isaiah 41. We can have a confident assurance that God's with us. Isaiah 41. Verse 17. Here He says, and He writes, The poor and needy seek water, but there is none. So again, this is not... The poorest among us can turn our caps on, and we've got all the water we want in our homes. So it's not, again, a physical state of poverty. It's a spiritual need, and the water is the guidance of God's Spirit, the power of that Spirit. The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongues fail for thirst. I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. We recognize that we have to drink from the right water, the source of water, the spiritual waters of God's Spirit. I will open rivers in desolate heights. No matter who we might think we are, and how brilliant and innovative and astute we are as people, as business people, as Christians, as workers, as laborers, as... Whatever we've accomplished with our life, the heights that we have achieved physically, he's saying here, I will open rivers in desolate heights.

What little I've done over the years, the higher you go, the drier it gets.

Because all the water is run down to the lower parts of those hills or mountain peaks. And you get up there and there's not much vegetation. And it's rocky and dry and arid. And so, no matter how high we get with ourselves, we still need water. We still need God's Spirit. He says, but I will open rivers in desolate heights and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree, the myrtle and the oil tree. I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine and the box tree together. And they shall see and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord has done this. The Holy One of Israel has created it. A dependence on God, a mind that can see God, and that is the mind that God will dwell with. In chapter 66 of Isaiah, in verse 1, Thus says the LORD, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Where is the house that ye will build me, and where is the place of my rest? For all those things my hand has made, and all those things exist, says the LORD. But on this one will I look, on this person, on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word. This is the type of attitude upon which God looks and his face shines. He makes his face to shine upon this. We have to acknowledge our spiritual bankruptcy before God. We come before him. We don't have any collateral. We don't have any down payment, no assets with which to barter. We're totally dependent on him. And it's that poverty of spirit, of mind, in terms of what we truly have that makes us dependent upon him. You know, when you go back to this attitude and see this, when Christ said back in Matthew 5.3, "...the blessed are the poor in spirit." This was his first statement of the sermon, which was his first major sermon that we have recorded here in the Bible. And as I said in the first sermon, this was a sermon. This was not stitched together from several talks. This was one full sermon that he gave on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. And it was very early in his ministry. And it was major. It was a major keynote address. And the first thing he had out of his mouth was, blessed are the poor in spirit. Now, imagine yourself applying for this job, setting in a crowd of people and listening to what Jesus said. And the first thing he says, he talks about poverty, a poor spirit. Had the disciples been listening right here? And we all know they weren't. Because we read that they asked all kinds of questions through the Gospels of Jesus about various things. And several of their questions indicated they didn't really hear what he meant when he said this. But had they been listening right here, they would have realized what they were signing on for. That the Kingdom of God was not going to come then. He wasn't going to restore the Kingdom to Israel.

Remember, you go all the way to Acts 1, and after Jesus was crucified and resurrected, just before he was sent to heaven, the disciples asked him again, Will you now, after all this, will you now restore the Kingdom to Israel? He said, No. No. This is not the time. And he told them that three and a half years earlier, and the very first statement that he made on this sermon.

And they didn't hear it. But you and I didn't hear it when we read it for the first time, and we thought about it when we signed on as disciples. We didn't hear it either. And we've had to learn it, and maybe we've learned it to certain degrees. But the restoration of the Kingdom was not to Israel then. God has not called us to a terrestrial Kingdom now. We look for another city. We look for the Kingdom of God to come.

We are not into a terrestrial, physical Kingdom now. There is not the promise of a nation or a state. Again, in the sermon, it was quoted where Jesus was taken up by Satan and tempted. And we could turn back to Matthew 4. And what was it that Satan tempted Christ with on one of the temptations? It was all the kingdoms of the earth. He would bow down and worship me. And what did Jesus do? He had it right there. He could have had a terrestrial Kingdom then. And he said, no. He said, no. He settled the whole issue. But his disciples didn't understand it. And he said right here at the beginning, that it's not a struggle against the government here. That's not it. That's why the Pharisees could not accept his message. Because they had their Kingdom through the bargain they made with Rome in their life. They had political power in Jerusalem and Judea. That was their Kingdom. As human beings we do that. We'll make a bargain for our Kingdom. The Pharisees did that and they rejected Christ's message. They already had their Kingdom. Later on there was a group of people rose up among the Jews at this time called zealots. And eventually, even in the area of Galilee, they rebelled against the Romans. They killed some Roman soldiers in one of the garrisons. They created this big uprising in 65-66 AD, long after Jesus's death. And that brought the wrath of Rome upon Judea. The 10th legion of Rome came marching into the country. They besieged Jerusalem, wiped it out after a period of time. And a group of those zealots escaped and went down to this mountaintop fortress in the wilderness called Masada. You've heard of Masada? And there they held out for another year or two against the Roman legions. And the 10th legion kind of lumbered down, passed the Dead Sea on down to Masada, and camped around it. And finally built this big earthen ramp up to the top. And just as they were about to break through and capture the zealots, they all committed suicide.

If you ever go to Masada, they'll take you right to the very room of the synagogue where they made their decision and drew the lots as to what order they would kill themselves. So when the Romans broke through that morning, they were all dead. The zealots tried to seize a Judaic kingdom and re-established the kingdom there, and they all ended up dead. And Jesus' message was not for them. Masada was their reward. So this is a very strong statement here. And it's an attitude of mine, the poor in spirit. It is the exact opposite of an attitude that we read about in Revelation 3 verse 17. Of the attitude Jesus speaks of the Laodicean church, the church Laodicea. Revelation 3 in verse 17. This again brings it back home for all of us to consider. Because remember what he said here in verse 17. He said to this church at Laodicea, Because you say I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, And do not know, you do not know, that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. They had a different poverty, and it was a poverty of humility, and spiritual strength, and spiritual fortitude. And Jesus had some very strong words to say to them there. This is the exact opposite of the attitude that the church, the disciples, you and I, are to develop, as Jesus gives it here. Let's go back now to Matthew 5, and let's look at verse 4.

He says, Now, mourning is an interesting thought to consider. To mourn is to...we do that when we have a death. We go to the house of mourning. We mourn the loss of a friend, a mate, a loved one.

We can mourn, be sorrowful over an illness, a reversal of fortunes. We lose a job. We see someone suffering in some way. We see someone going through a divorce, perhaps. And we can mourn for them. We can feel sorrow for them, and we should. That's a type of mourning that is meant here.

But, through it all, just consider the common thread. What happens when we come to the point where we sorrow or we mourn over something? It's at a time of loss. When something has been removed, when something has been lost, it can be something as trivial as something around the house. We get upset if we lost something around the house. We can't find it. Or something that's obviously far more important, like a life or a job. And we mourn over something that has been lost.

And when we mourn, we seek comfort. We want someone to understand. We want someone to say, I'm sorry. You know, at a time of death, what do you say? And I think we've all been, you know, we've all realized that at a time when we have, whether it's been with a death, whether it's been a major tragedy of the other sort in our life, when someone just comes and says, I'm sorry, that can mean a great deal.

Never, ever underestimate the comfort that is given when you express comfort to someone. And you may truly, in your own heart and mind, you're at a loss. You may not have grasped the full depth of their own, of the other person's loss, what they're mourning over, and you don't emotionally fully connect with it, and you may be stunned or whatever. And I'm not saying don't say it out of falsehood or whatever, but understand just the power of someone who can say, I'm sorry for what you're dealing with, or what you've done, sorry for your loss.

That means a great—that does offer a level of comfort to someone. So never underestimate that, and be willing to do that in whatever fashion, through words, through cards, through a call, because it does help to comfort someone at a time of loss. But Jesus is really speaking of something far deeper to the individual here than all of these things. Really what he is talking about here in his spiritual sense is the sorrow of repentance, another dimension of repentance that perhaps we've not thought about. Here he's talking about mourning the loss of innocence, the loss of innocence, our righteousness, the loss of the way to righteousness, maybe even our own self-respect.

And all that has been taken away, why does Jesus hold up the attitude of a young child as that of the spiritual perfection of the kingdom of God? Why a young child? So many times I know we've talked about this when we have the blessing of the children, but there is an innocence about a child that is sweet, adorable, and every time we coup and gah over a child or our grandchildren, and we're really enthralled as much, you know, maybe it's our kid or it's our grandkid or whatever, but I think as I looked at my two grandchildren, it brought back certain memories that I had with our sons and those things, and I think I see their innocence.

I see the innocence of that child. And I'm thinking, you know, as an adult, my mind's already hardened, and, you know, I've been chasing by the life. I'm thinking ahead, I'm thinking, oh, this little girl, well, she's... the disappointment she's going to have. I don't think... I dwell on that, but I've thought about that as I've looked at my granddaughter or my grandson, and I think, boy, you know, I wonder what they're going to have to deal with. What's going to be their first pain, their first experience of the reality of life when somebody disappoints them, when somebody lies to them, when someone hurts them in school or whatever, and that innocence begins to be taken away.

I've at times thought about that in my own life as I look back, and, you know, you wish you could recapture a lot of that. That's, again, that's why Jesus holds up a little child as the picture of the kingdom of those who will be in the kingdom of God. When he speaks here of the mourning, it is a weeping over the loss of innocence that sin causes in our life, and the ripping away of trust, self-respect, confidence.

That's part of—that is a great deal of what he is talking about. It's the weeping over the sins of others that he is speaking about. Let's look at Psalm 119.

Psalm 119. I thought I brought a book that I didn't bring that I was going to use later on. Psalm 119, verse 136.

Here in this very long psalm, it says, verse 135, Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your statutes. Rivers of water run down from my eyes, because men do not keep your law. The writer of this psalm looked at his neighbors and society, and he actually cried because God's people did not keep God's law. That's a mourning. And he says, Blessed are those who mourn. You can mourn in that sense as well because of the fact that so many do not keep the law of God. In Ezekiel 9, Ezekiel is told as he goes through Jerusalem, Ezekiel 9, verse 4, Those who are singled out in Jerusalem by the prophet have this very quality. Ezekiel 9, verse 4, The Lord said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over the abominations that are done within it. And you understand what was done. You have within this picture of Jerusalem at that time even a very apt description of the Easter celebrations, traditions that have been adapted into the modern Easter celebrations, as they were weeping for Tammuz, the God who needed to be resurrected. And that was a part of what they were doing back in chapter 8, verse 14. And so the very quality of those who have a mark put on their foreheads, which in this particular part of the prophecy, which is to separate the righteous from the unrighteous, from the destruction that was imminent upon Jerusalem, was because, again, due to those who mourned for the sins of the land. We've just gone through the Christmas season, and we've... You know, at times I think it's important that we kind of step back and maybe examine how we look at all of this sometimes. We are against... We don't keep Christmas, and we... I think we need to... I think, personally, I think at times we need to realize that it's important that we put forth as a church more of what we are for rather than what we are against. And though we are... We don't... We understand the problems of the Christmas celebration, it's... We are for a whole lot more than just being against Christmas. You know what I'm saying? And that, you know, you don't see a Christmas tree up in my yard, you never will. That's not the issue. It's one of these things we just have to get through. But it's part of the whole structure of society that is against God, and this is one manifestation of it. And I think at times we need to kind of keep that in a proper adjustment and balance in terms of our whole message and our approach. But we do sigh and cry for that, because what it hides from people. In Philippians 3, verse 18. Philippians 3, verse 18.

As Paul was describing a group of people who were now against the church, and they were enemies, he at least speaks of an attitude. Verse 18 of Philippians 3.

And so he wept, he mourned, as he talked of people who he had formerly worked with, who now worked against the gospel. And we're enemies of the cross of Christ. So this weeping that Jesus speaks of is a sorrow. It's a sorrow for sin. It's a sorrow for behavior. But it is one that is properly dealt with, and it is an approach that is very important. In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, let's just go there. 1 Corinthians 5.

We have an example here where they didn't properly mourn. The problem that was within the Corinthian church of sexual immorality, that was not even, they had concocted something even unique in their own midst. Verse 1 tells us that it's not even named among the Gentiles. A man has his father's wife, and the members there in Corinth were oblivious to it, or somehow rationalized it. And he said, you are puffed up in verse 2, and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.

The members didn't have a proper sense of mourning over this sin in their midst, that it would be taken away. Now, in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 21, Paul gives the other dimension to this mourning and to this approach to these types of problems. And he was talking about how he wanted to find them, the church, when he came to them, and how his attitude would be in verse 21, 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, and fornication, and lewdness which they have practiced. So a mourning can lead to certain actions to preserve the unity of the church, the integrity of the church. As Paul talked about here, but it's a mourning over sin and then knowing what to do with it. And Christ said, blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. That mourning comes from God. I'm sorry, the comfort comes from God. God does give that comfort. There's a wonderful example in Luke chapter 2 of a man named Simeon, Luke the second chapter, who mourned over the state of Israel and Judah at this time, and he yearned to see the Messiah, Luke chapter 2. And this early stage of Jesus' life is his childhood, and his parents bringing him into the temple at this point, and in the story in verse 25 it says, "'Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. This man waited and looked for the Messiah. He wanted to be consoled. He saw the times, he understood the depths to which spiritually Judah had sunk, and the problems that the only solution, the only hope, was the Messiah. And he waited for this man to see the Messiah, and he was a unique man, singled out in the accounts here. Verse 26, "'It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.'" And so here's a man who mourned over the state of God's people and his time, and he waited to be consoled for the consolation of Israel. And so he came on this particular occasion. At this day, when Christ was brought as a baby into the temple, he came by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God. And he went on to read here this particular blessing. But it's an example of a man who mourned at his times, and he waited, and he was given a blessing of being able to see the Messiah. And so again, this mourning is of a sense of loss, and yet taking the steps to deal with it in the way that God will grant comfort and the hope and the assurance that God will grant the comfort that is so important and is so needed. Now let's go back to Matthew 5 and look at verse 5. This is the third of the Beatitudes. He says, "'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.'" The meek. When I was a student at college, I think everybody had it written in their margins, weak, meek, not weak. It became one of the phrases that we kind of looked at when we read this. Meek, not weak. It's not speaking of weakness. What is it speaking of?

"'Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.'" How can a meek person inherit the earth? If he's not strong, if he's not bold, if he's not a courageous conqueror, if he's not aggressive, how can you inherit the earth? Now here we've changed in this sense to a meekness, a poor in spirit. There is the kingdom of heaven. The meek will inherit the earth. That gets a lot of trashing and popular approaches today as people try to grapple with the teachings of Jesus and what this means. It's really speaking of a gentle, humble, considerate spirit and attitude. It's really speaking of the ability to be in control of who you are, the power you have, and everything about your life. This is really what meekness is all about. The word meek here comes from a Greek word which means gentle. It means humble. It means courteous. But it really is talking about the gentleness of spirit and self-control. If you don't have self-control, you won't be humble.

If you're not in control of yourself, you'll not be courteous. You'll be rude. If you're not in control of yourself, you'll hurt people. You won't be gentle. Gentleness is...you're incapable of that. To be gentle, you have to be in control. You ever seen any of these movies of the space program, Apollo 13, whenever it comes on, it just grabs my attention. I can't flip it through the channels and see Apollo 13 is on.

And I'll stop and watch it. I don't care what part they're in. I know every part of it. I know they get back. But it was a grippingly told movie. But there's one scene in there where the astronauts have to very, very carefully adjust their trajectory. And they have to do it by hand in order to meet their...get back into the Earth's atmosphere. And there's another point where they have to...as they separate from the lunar module and do all these things, they have to do all these things very, very gently by hand. I think that's what...in the early stages when the command module has to separate from the lunar module, turn around, and then dock.

This is when they were going out to the moon before they had the accident that caused all the problems. And every time they have to do these very intricate maneuvers, the astronauts have to very gently...that's what I'm getting to... exercise the controls of their spacecraft to either dock with the lunar module or position its trajectory so that they come and enter the Earth's atmosphere at the exact angle to keep them from either burning up or skipping off of it and flying back out into outer space without any hope of recovery.

And the gentleness with which they have to use their little, basically, joysticks to move their thrusters, to attach themselves to the other module, takes a tremendous amount of control. And they have to do it very gently, is my point. And yet they are dealing with very powerful, intricate machinery in space, in a vacuum, in a whole different environment. And you watch those and you realize how much control had to be exercised for those men to do it just right. That's what Meekness is talking about here. Being in control of power.

To use it for good. That's the blessing that comes. That is what this is talking about here. That's how you accomplish those things. The entire meaning of Meekness here is one who is in control of the power that they have. Back in Numbers 12, there is the story of Moses when he was challenged by, of all people, his sister. Chapter 12 of Numbers. This is one of the many stories in the Israelites where they didn't like what Moses was doing. And now it kind of comes to the point where Miriam and Aaron, his sister and his brother, they spoke against Moses.

They brought a charge. They were angry. They were upset with what was being done. In this case, it was because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married, for he married an Ethiopian woman. They came to him and it went far deeper than just who he had married. They said to him, has God just indeed spoken only through Moses?

You can imagine all the hours of conversation that led up to them finally doing this. But they were challenging his position, not just his rank in the leadership over Israel, but even within the family. Keep in mind that Moses was the younger one. But he had obviously assumed the leadership role that neither the other two had. Here are some sibling issues, probably, in the mix of all of this, as well as the issues within Israel.

But they said, has God indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? The Lord heard it. So there was a direct challenge to Moses. You can imagine the male ego. You can imagine the CEO ego. Whatever comes into play here. And a couple with it, there was a woman, and it was his sister, and it was his brother.

And he said, had I been good to you? Haven't I helped you out, and you're here because of me? And all these things beginning to float around that could come out. But it says to Moses that he was very humble, verse 3, more than all the men who were on the face of the earth.

Moses didn't write that. That was inserted later on by another scribe to explain and put dimension to this whole incident. Moses wouldn't have been very humble had he written that about himself, would he? It's one of those challenges to the Scriptures that's very easily understood as to exactly how this came about. But he was humble. He was very...he was meek. And suddenly God said to Miriam, or to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, Come out, you three, to the tabernacle of meeting, and the three came out.

And God came out in the pillar and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and he called Aaron and Miriam, and they went forward. We don't have time to go through the whole story, but you remember that Miriam was made leprous. And what did Moses do? He prayed for her. He fell on his knees, and he begged God for mercy for her. He could have stood aside and said, hey, sis, you got what you asked for.

Sorry, can't help you. I'm all out of prayers today. I've used up all my tokens for this week. Don't have any more. He didn't. He prayed to God. Now, Moses was very powerful. He was the leader of Israel. He could have said, you know, you have broken protocol, legalities.

He had the power, but he interceded when you read through the whole story. And he didn't exercise his power. That's why he was humble. He had control over what he was able to do. Any time, whether you're a father, mother, supervisor, department head, whatever, any time you are working with people and you are responsible for them, in whatever capacity, you have power.

And when that power is used for good, to build up, to edify, to train, to mentor, to reach the goals of the company, the department, whatever, to do that at any level, for anyone, it is going to take tremendous self-control, tremendous humility to recognize that the power that you have should be used for good. And not used to promote yourself, pad your own pocket, your own resume, or make you look good with someone else.

Or to belittle someone, or to abuse someone because of some quirk in your nature and personality. Power, authority, responsibility takes meekness to exercise it wisely, carefully, for the good of everyone. And that's what Jesus here is really talking about. And it is a tremendous power to even be able to come to that quality of meekness that is described here by this Greek word, which really is... it's also used... I was going to bring my William Barclay's commentary on New Testament words. I had it out, forgot to put it in this morning.

But he talks about this quality of meekness and how it is described in certain classical Greek literature to describe the quality that one brings a very powerful animal, like a horse, and to control by the use of a bridle in training and exercise. And you harness and you channel that tremendous power exemplified in that of a horse. And that word meekness, or the Greek word praus, it's P-R-A-U-S, is the Greek word here for meekness, is used to describe in other situations the control by which a very powerful animal is brought into.

And that's what is being described here, of self-control over all of these emotions, to where they are channeled for good. One who is truly meek is even amazed that God can think of us and think of them as well as we do, and treat people the way that we do. And we understand truly who we are. A meek attitude comes with a true evaluation of ourselves. We recognize that we are sinners. We have a true estimate of what we can do. We can admit that in our heart, and we can deal with it.

You know, you look at this example of Moses, and look at, you know, how do we measure up to that? Well, I don't know. You might have a pretty... in your own mind, think of yourself as weak or a sinner.

You recognize your own weaknesses, and you may have prayed this week, a time or two, about that, and asked God's forgiveness. And you may feel about that about yourself. But how would you feel if somebody walked up to you after services today, tapped you on the shoulder, and said, you...

you low down, lousy, stinking sinner. Right over by the coffee pot. How would you react to that? Now, you may have prayed to God this morning, thinking, that's how I am. You beat your... you beat your breast, as the example goes. Be merciful to me, God. I'm just a sinner. But somebody called you that publicly. How would you react? Would you punch out his lights? Or her lights? Would you just, you know, scream at him? Would you retaliate in kind?

It's an example. I mean, don't do that to anybody. Let's not do that this morning. Please don't do it to me. I don't want to be tested that way. But think about it yourself. If somebody slights you, insults you, how do you react? Are you in control? Can you deal with it graciously? Can you perhaps see through their immaturity? Their lack of graciousness? Whatever it might be for the moment, in whatever situation, it doesn't always have to be a blatant name-calling situation. It can just be a common, everyday slight. They forget your name. They forget they knew you. Or admit you, three years ago. When you see them at the Feast of Tabernacles, they look at you and they look right through you. You remember them, but they don't remember you. And how do you react? Meekness. Meekness. It's having ourselves in control, where we react with grace. We react with gentleness, consideration, and we're courteous. We exercise self-control. That's what he's talking about here. Those are three. We only have time for three this morning. We'll finish the others next time. But you can see this is a very powerful exercise to go through this sermon, to determine how close we are to the qualities of the Kingdom of God.