05. God's Kingdom In Action Series

Dr. Bradford Reaves

Crossway Christian Fellowship

Hagerstown, MD

www.mycrossway.org

Two gas company servicemen were working together. The senior supervisor was spending the day training the young man as they were checking meters in a neighborhood. They parked their truck at the end of the alley and worked their way down the houses to the other end of the alley. At the last house, a woman was looking out her kitchen window watched the two men as they checked her gas meter. Finishing the meter check, the senior supervisor challenged his younger co-worker to a foot race down the alley back to the truck to prove that an older guy could outrun a younger one. As they came running up to the truck, heard huffing and puffing behind them and saw the woman from the last house running up behind them. They stopped and asked her what was wrong. Gasping for breath, she replied, "When I saw two men from the gas company running as hard as you two were, I figured I'd better run too!" (Leighton Vary, Sermon Central)

The world is watching the Church, especially in these days of deception, uncertainty, and darkness. How we respond to the world around us is pertinent to what we believe.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve closely examined the opening lines of Jesus’ sermon during his ministry here on earth. The first word Jesus uses to open his sermon is “Blessed” - marikos - which can also be translated as happy. It is not a fleeting feeling, but instead it is an inward blessedness that touches the very core of our being. And in those first few lines of blessing, Jesus presents us with a series of paradoxes demonstrating that the blessedness found in the Kingdom of Heaven is nothing like the worldly definition of blessedness.

First, he tells us that you are blessed when you are poor in spirit. Means, that your realize that you are spiritually poor and bankrupt, without any purpose or resources to bring to God. In that realization, you must depend on God in faith for salvation and in that, you are given the Kingdom of Heaven.

Once you realize your spiritual poverty, you come to the next rung on the ladder of the beatitudes, and Jesus says you are blessed when you mourn - meaning the grief over the sin in your life and the world. This kind of mourning and sorrow is the root of Christian repentance to turn away from sin and here we find God’s comfort through His forgiveness.

Our mourning and sorrow over sin give us the next blessing on the Beatitude ladder: meekness. Jesus tells the meek are blessed, for we will inherit the earth. Meekness means, “gentleness through self-control.” The believer’s life is continually led by the Holy Spirit. It is confidence in God instead of arrogance in ourselves. In other words, MEEKNESS IS THE COMPLETE ABSENCE OF CONFIDENCE IN MYSELF AND AN ABSOLUTE, UNASHAMED, BOLD, STEADFAST, CONFIDENCE IN GOD.

This brings us to the fourth beatitude, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. As we walk more humbly with the Holy Spirit and put our confidence in Him instead of ourselves, we learn to depend on Him for our very being and we become hungry for living for him. Like the very food and water we need to survive physically, we know we cannot live without Him spiritually.

Now we come today to the next three Beatitudes, and these three are really the fruit of being Kingdom Citizens: Blessed are the Merciful, Blessed are the Pure in Heart, and Blessed is the Peacemakers. What happens to our outward living when we are inwardly changed by The Lord Jesus Christ? We’re going to take them one by one.

I. Blessed are the Merciful

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” (Matthew 5:7)

Mercy is not a feeling, it is not a state of being, nor is it a characteristic of faith. It is an action. Biblically speaking, mercy is an act of forgiveness in the form of healing or comfort that is extended to someone who has no merit to receive anything. It is characterized as compassionate treatment of those in distress regardless of the circumstances behind the offense. Mercy is Love in Action. (Got Questions, Logos, Sermon Central)

Many people confuse mercy and grace. They are closely related by powerfully distinct. Mercy is withholding punishment to someone who deserves to be punished. Grace is showing favor and kindness to someone who does not deserve to be given a gift.

What is amazing is Jesus was the most merciful person to ever walk this earth and he received no mercy from the very ones he showed tremendous mercy. Jesus came during the rule of two merciless systems: The Roman Empire and the apostate Jewish Legalists who collaborated together mercilessly and crucified the Lord (MacArthur).