The Blessed Mourners | Matthew 5:4

Scripture

• Matthew 5:4

About this sermon

Introduction: Each of the beatitudes is radically counter-cultural. But the one we examine now is arguably the most counter-cultural. It is true that this world has little regard for humility, or meekness, and certainly not for persecution, but it wants nothing to do with mourning. It recognizes that people mourn. It sometimes empathizes with those who mourn. But it does not see virtue in mourning. The people who mourn are to be pitied, but they are not to be envied. They are not thought to be privileged, fortunate, favored by God. This is not only counter-cultural with respect to the world of lost humanity, but also often counter-cultural in the professing church. In fact, if we can be honest, it’s contrary to our own instincts. We thank God for a great many things, but we don’t often thank Him for making us mourners. What we have here is a particular kind of mourning. It is not the kind of mourning common to man. It is a kind of mourning experienced in the grace of God. We will organize our study of it under three questions. • What is this mourning? • What characterizes this mourning? • In what way will God comfort those who mourn? • WHAT IS THIS MOURNING? James Montgomery Boice makes the point that we really have three options when we seek discover what Jesus is talking about. One, it could refer to the kind of human sorrow that is common to man. The sorrow that all people know when faced with loss, regret, wasted opportunities, devastating news, abandonment, disloyalty, and all sorts of other things that cause great sadness in this sin sick world. Two, it could refer to the kind of mourning that people know over the sinful condition of the world around us. The sadness that believers know when evil seems to triumph, and righteousness is disregarded. Boice said that it seemed to him (and I agree) that this second kind of mourning comes closer to what Jesus was talking about, but still seems to be a step away from it. James Boice — “There is no doubt then that these thoughts are wrapped up in the second beatitude. It speaks to these issues. And yet, I cannot feel that even this point gets quite to the heart of Christ’s statements. Jesus was speaking of an individual mourning, but he also spoke of an individual comforting. And the combination seems to suggest that the primary mourning should be for the individual himself and for his own spiritual condition. This is a mourning for sin. And if this is the primary interpretation of the verse, then it is a promise that God himself will comfort the one who sees his own unworthiness before him.” Alexander Maclaren speaks on behalf of many who agree with him and Boice. Alexander Maclaren — “So I would say, first, that the mourners whom Christ pronounces ‘blessed’ are those who are ‘poor in spirit.’ The mourning is the emotion which follows upon that poverty. The one is the recognition of the true estimate of our own characters and failings; the other is the feeling that follows upon that recognition. The one is the prophet’s clear-sighted ‘I am a man of unclean lips’; the other is the same prophet’s contemporaneous wail, ‘Woe is me, for I am undone!’” That is my understanding of this beatitude as well. And I say that based upon something I said last Sunday evening. These beatitudes hold together. They are all related to each other, and there is an almost telescopic character about them. IF POVERTY OF SPIRIT MEANS THAT A PERSON RECOGNIZES HIS SPIRITUAL BANKRUPTCY BEFORE GOD, THEN THE PERSON WHO MOURNS IS THE ONE WHO IS GRIEVED BY HIS OWN SINFULNESS. THAT GRIEF EXISTS BECAUSE OF GOD’S GRACE. There is no question that eternal life acquaints us with new joys, but eternal life also acquaints us with a new kind of sorrow. There is no doubt that where eternal life has come, there is grief over the condition of the world, and that sorrow has to do with sin. BUT NO ONE TRULY GRIEVES OVER SIN IN THE WORLD WHO DOES NOT GRIEVE MOST OVER SIN IN HIMSELF. The mourning described here is the grief of the one who has come to see what he really is without Jesus. The mourning described here is the grief of the one who is convicted over his spiritual poverty. This is the grief of godly sorrow. This DOES NOT EXCLUDE the grief that believers know over sin in general, but it insures that their grief begins within the world of their own life. • WHAT CHARACTERIZES THIS MOURNING?

Topics

• Blessing & Favor