Fruit of the Spirit - Gentleness, Self-Control
Scripture: Mark 10:13-16, John 2:13-17
Text: Matthew 11:29
There are plenty of sermons written on gentleness and self-control. If I were to speak to you this morning just on self-control, it might be natural to talk about Joseph as he ran from Potiphar’s house in the face of sexual advances from Potiphar’s wife. Or I could talk to you about the self-control we witness on David’s part when he has the opportunity, not once, but twice to kill his enemy Saul who was chasing after David to kill him. But David exercised self-control and didn’t take the opportunity he was given.
When we think of gentleness, perhaps the person who most often comes to mind, is Mary, the mother of Jesus as she withstood the criticism and pain of her pre-marital pregnancy - and yet God chose her to be his son’s mother. And gentleness is certainly evident from the woman who, with tears of gratitude, washes Jesus’s feet and gently wipes them with her own hair which, against the custom of the day, she has let down - must to the chagrin of the hypocritical onlookers.
But today I would like us to consider stories in the life of the one person who is to be our greatest example - the model whom we are to follow. And that’s Jesus.
Jesus was certainly gentle when he said to the woman caught in sin, “Neither do I condemn you. Go now, and sin no more.”
For sure, we see his self-control when the thief on the cross taunts him, in the most agonizing moments of his life, to save himself, and them too. But he doesn’t. He stays on the cross and endures the pain for you, and me.
And we’ve just heard two stories of how Jesus responded in two other situations.
In the one story, we can imagine an almost perfect day with Jesus teaching as the children of those listening are frolicking in the nearby fields. And before long a group of parents get together and decide to bring their children to Jesus to have him bless them. It wasn’t unusual in those days, in Jewish custom, for parents to bring their children to rabbis for a blessing. And we see the disciples rebuke the people for trying to get to Jesus with the children and they try to turn them away, and Jesus intervenes.
In the second story, Jesus is honoring the law by coming to the temple at the time of the Passover feast. And you can perhaps see him as he walks with his family possibly, and his disciples, along the road to Jerusalem. Maybe they’re talking over the events of the day before, or their plans for that evening, and they appear at the temple. In fact, it is the part of the temple that is the court of the Gentiles, and here we find Jesus intervening in a different matter, and in a very different way.
And what I want to suggest to you this morning, is that in each of these stories - in these very different responses, Jesus acts with BOTH gentleness AND self-control.
Webster’s dictionary defines gentleness as that which is calm, mild, or pleasant. It is serene, noble, refined, courteous.
And Webster’s defines self-control as having control of one’s emotions, desires or actions. And to control means to regulate, or exercise authority over - to direct, or use effectively.
And Jesus is both gentle and self-controlled in each of these stories.
And if we’re going to have the fruit of the Spirit in us, we too, will have to learn to be gentle, and self-controlled.
Now we likely have no problem reconciling the word gentle with Jesus who is balancing children on his knee, blessing them with profound and wonderful words for the future and then carefully setting them down again to go and play. But where did he use self-control?
And we might ask ourselves, where is there any gentleness OR self-control in the story of the cleansing of the temple.
And then of course, we will most certainly ask, “And what on earth does it have to do with me?”
These stories are important for us today, because they teach us, not only the meaning of gentleness and self-control, but they show us how these attributes - these fruit of the spirit, are evident in our everyday lives in the 21st Century.
Turn in your Bibles for just a minute to our text for today. Look at Matthew 11:29. Matthew 11:29 says, “Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
When the Holy Spirit develops within us, the fruit of gentleness and self-control, and all the other fruit as well, it is then, as our text says, that we find rest for our souls. And the Holy Spirit develops that fruit within us, as we’ve noted before, as we are obedient to Jesus’ example. And Jesus asks us to let him teach us. So this morning as we look at these two stories, let’s let Jesus teach us, from his Word, what it means to be gentle, and self-controlled. Because I believe if we have, particularly these two attributes as part of our character, as part of the moral fibre of our being, then we will be at rest. We will be a restful, peaceful presence in this chaotic world in which we live.
Let’s first of all, look at the story of Jesus with the children.
The thing we learn from this story that Jesus is trying to teach us is that we are to:
1. Remember the lessons he has already taught us.
Why would the disciples rebuke the people and try to keep the children from coming to Jesus? Well, they probably thought they were doing Jesus a favor by helping protect his time and conserve his strength. But just a short while before that - in the previous chapter of Mark, Jesus had taught his disciples to receive the children in his name and to be careful not to cause any of them to stumble. The disciples had already forgotten what Jesus had taught them about how important the children were.
And sometimes we forget the lessons Jesus first taught us. You know, we accept Jesus as our Savior, we begin to walk and talk with him and he teaches us, from His word, how he wants us to live, and grow in him. And before too long, we become secure in our inheritance of eternal life, and we begin to forgot those important lessons that Jesus taught us when we first became his disciples - when we were passionate, and on fire for him - when it was all new and exciting.
And when we do that, we can expect Jesus to respond to us, the way he responded to the disciples that day. He rebuked them. In fact, the Greek there suggests intensity - he was indignant - It’s quite similar to how you feel when you tell your young son or daughter not to do something and within five minutes they are right there doing the very thing you told them not to do!
A. Jesus rebuked the disciples. (He told them to let the children through.)
B. Jesus reminded them of their lesson. He again told them how important the little children were to the kingdom of God and that they themselves, would have to become like children in order to be part of that kingdom. In other words, he told them the children were better examples of the kingdom of God than they were!
C. Jesus responded to the situation. He took the children in his arms and blessed them.
In rebuking the disciples, Jesus is gentle and self-controlled. He firmly and calmly reminds them of those things they have already been taught, and as his disciples, should know and be putting into practice. And he exercises his authority over them by regulating their behavior and doing what they were trying to prevent him from accomplishing. He blessed the children. Gentleness, and self-control.
Now we need to understand. The disciples no doubt meant well in trying to turn away the people who were coming to Jesus. They probably thought they had the Lord’s best interests at heart.
And folks, sometimes, even though we mean well. Even though our intentions are good, we turn people away from Jesus through our lack of gentleness and self-control, because we have forgotten the first things that Jesus taught us. That ought not to be.
In the second story we see Jesus’ gentleness and self-control in other ways.
The day that he cleared the temple Jesus saw people use God to justify their selfish behavior. He wasn’t upset because money was being changed, or because animals were being sold for the sacrifices that had to be made. That was life. Those things had to happen. What infuriated Jesus that day was when people who were coming to worship God were being defrauded by religious hucksters. (Den Guptill sermon Fruit of the Spirit - Gentleness.) Do you remember what Jesus said when he turned over the tables and sent the money-changers packing? “My temple will be a place of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”
The lesson we learn from this story, that Jesus is trying to teach us, is:
2. Keep God’s temple pure.
Warren Wiersbe says the condition of the temple was a vivid indication of the spiritual condition of the nation. Their religion was a dull routine, presided over by worldly minded men whose main desire was to exercise authority and get rich. Most of the religious leaders were false shepherds who exploited the people. When Jesus cleansed the temple, he declared war on the hypocritical religious leaders and that ultimately lead to his death.”
And when we today call ourselves Christians, or followers of Christ, and then don’t live as he taught, we are being hypocrites and we defile the temple of the very one who gave his life for us, through our actions. And that makes Jesus angry. It made him angry 2000 years ago and it makes him angry today.
You know the real tragedy of this story is that the merchants were in the court of the Gentiles. This was the courtyard where the Jews would meet with Gentiles to tell them, to instruct them, about the one true God. It’s not likely that a Gentile searching for the truth would find it among the religious merchants in the temple (Wiersbe).
How does Jesus respond?
A. Jesus purged the temple.
B. Jesus protected their property.
C. Jesus was passionate about his purpose.
Here again we see gentleness and self-control together. Jesus braided a whip in order to do what he had in mind, so we know he was not out of control - I can almost see him counting to 10 as he braided that rope!
And he was gentle in that he was respectful of even those who were doing people harm. I know that because in verse 16 the Bible says he went over to the people who sold the doves - notice he didn’t release the doves, he told the people to get out of the temple and take their doves with them.
And I believe the saddest part of this story, is not the Jews who were being robbed with exorbitant prices for the sacrifices they had to have. The real tragedy is that the very place where unbelieving Gentiles were to find the truth of God - the truth of God’s word, was being turned into a place where there was no truth.
Psalm 69:9 prophecies the passion of Jesus for the house of the Lord.
Gentleness and Self-control. Against such, there is no law. Let me sum up this way.
Have you ever used a chain saw? Have you noticed that the duller the blade, the harder you push? I’ve seen men use dull blades to the point where they are pushing hard and even have to use a sawing motion to get the thing to cut. But if the blade is sharp, all you need is a gentle push. The same is true for these two fruit of the spirit. When less time is spent on sharpening our relationship with Jesus and remembering the lessons he has taught us - being passionate for him and his house of prayer, then more energy is spent on bearing down on others, and we lose our gentleness and self-control. http://.mcdonaldroad.org/sermons/98/0523.htm)
When we get pushy and agitated it is because we are using a dull saw. But, the more time we spend in reading and understanding God’s word - in other words, remembering the lessons Jesus taught us, - and prayer - what the Lord’s house is for, the more our lives will be gentle and self-controlled.
Spirit-filled people, live spirit-filled lives. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against these, no-one can bring a charge.
