Blessed are those who mourn
Matthew 5:4 - Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
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Intro
Don’t worry be happy.
Put on a happy face.
Turn that frown upside down
Don’t be so sad.
Choose happy.
Hope your day is a happy one.
Those are sayings you have probably heard many times throughout the years.
We want people to be happy.
How many times have you heard,
Don’t worry, Be sad
Put on a sad face
Hope you have a really sorrowful day today
Choose to be grief filled.
There aren’t too many sayings, if any, that direct us to be sad.
That is, other than what Jesus said in the beatitude we are going to be discussing today.
We began a series in the beatitudes last week and we talked about the first one,
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God” (Matthew 5:3).
This morning we are going to talk about the next thing Jesus said as He began the Sermon on the Mount.
In Matthew 5:4, Jesus says,
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
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Blessed are those who mourn? Really? That is so opposite of anything we would think.
We think
blessed are those who are happy.
Blessed are those who are healthy.
But Blessed are those who mourn? That doesn’t sound like being blessed to me.
What in the world does Jesus mean by this statement?
We are going to examine this a bit closer today so we can
better understand what He means and
experience the comfort that He talks about
To start, I want us to understand the meaning of the terms and then ask some questions when we can expect to find comfort in mourning and when we can’t
We need to remember from last week how we defined blessed.
Blessed, in this context, we defined as “having and experiencing God’s approval.”
Definitions:
Blessed = Having and Experiencing God’s Approval
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Experiencing God’s approval is a great blessing and it is a great feeling.
We looked at it like getting your parents approval for something you have done, just a great feeling inside.
The next word we need to define is Mourn.
Mourn = to express Grief, Sorrow or Regret
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Now we understand mourning normally in the context of someone dying, but we can mourn, or express grief, sorrow, or regret over many things besides just the death of someone.
We can grieve that we did not get a promotion at work
We can regret and mourn an action we have taken that has consequences we do not want.
We do not only mourn due to death, but a loss or feeling of loss of any kind.
So, using the definitions we have established, the phrase would read
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“Having and experiencing God’s approval are those that express Grief, sorrow or regret, for they shall be comforted.”
Question
Now the question that comes to my mind is “Will anyone who is mourning for any reason, experience God’s approval by receiving His comfort?”
I would argue that
to find God’s comfort depends on what and how we are mourning
Disclaimer
Now before we begin, I believe that true comfort in our mourning can really only be had by those who are in a relationship with the Lord. Without Christ, I believe we just end up medicating ourselves in some fashion to alleviate the pain we experience from loss.
I believe that there is a definite order to the beatitudes.
Jesus started out saying blessed are those who are poor in spirit for they will inherit the kingdom of heaven.
When we recognize our spiritual poverty and come to the Lord for salvation recognizing it is all from Him and nothing from us, and we receive that salvation from Him, we enter into that relationship that He offers.
It is only in the midst of that relationship with the living God, that there will be any comfort in our mourning.
Now that being said, I believe that there are times, even for those in relationship with the Lord, that we only find comfort when we mourn with proper perspective.
For example, I believe that
Comfort is found as we
Recognize God’s Provision as we mourn our Loss
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When David’s son Absalom, who sought to kill and overthrow David was killed, David at first began to mourn the death of Absalom without recognizing how God had protected David and his family and ultimately the nation of Israel.
We read that as the men returned, from this victory for David and Israel, David was off grieving.
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2 Samuel 19:1 - Joab was told, "The king is weeping and mourning for Absalom." 2 And for the whole army the victory that day was turned into mourning, because on that day the troops heard it said, "The king is grieving for his son."
Joab goes to the king to remind Him of how his life and the lives of the rest of his family and army and ultimately the nation had been protected that day with the death of Absalom.
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2 Samuel 19:5-7, "Today you have humiliated all your men, who have just saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters and the lives of your wives and concubines. 6 You love those who hate you and hate those who love you. You have made it clear today that the commanders and their men mean nothing to you. I see that you would be pleased if Absalom were alive today and all of us were dead.
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7 Now go out and encourage your men. I swear by the LORD that if you don't go out, not a man will be left with you by nightfall. This will be worse for you than all the calamities that have come upon you from your youth till now."
Now we can understand David mourning his son. We have a love for our children even when they do wrong.
But David, at first failed to recognize God’s provision and blessing upon him. After being rebuked by Joab, he comes out even amid his mourning to honor his men, recognizing that God protected and provided for David in the midst of this.
Now, even when someone dies or an event happens that is in opposition to God, God is not pleased that the wicked have perished.
He says in
Ezekiel 18:23, 32
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23 Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?...32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!
But even as we may mourn the loss of someone we loved, even though their actions may have caused their death, we need to keep in perspective God’s provision if their life would result in our death.
Secondly, Comfort is found as we
Recognize God’s Justice as we mourn the Consequences
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When Saul was rejected as King of Israel as a consequence for his disobedience to the Lord, Samuel mourned for him.
1 Samuel 16:1
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16:1 The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king."
God didn’t say don’t mourn for Saul, but Samuel was just mourning the consequences of Saul’s sin with recognizing God’s justice in removing Him as King. That time for mourning was over and it was time to recognize God’s Justice and His sovereignty as He anointed a new king.
If we are going to experience comfort as we and others experience consequences, we need to keep our eyes on a sovereign and just God who is able to accomplish His will always.
When we recognize that we will find comfort.
Now those circumstances are in relation to God’s sovereign plan with the nation of Israel, but I believe it helps us to realize that our eyes need to be upon the Lord if we are going to find comfort when we mourn.
In more normal circumstances of life that we may experience grieving, I think this issue of perspective applies as well.
For example I believe we can find comfort as we
Recognize our hope even as we mourn the death of a follower of Christ.
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When a follower of Jesus dies, we understand that they have left this earthly, sinful world and are now experiencing eternal glory. And while we mourn their absence from us, our mourning is comforted by our hope.
1 Thessalonians 4:13, 17b-18
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13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.
Then Paul talks about the rapture and the order of events and then says,
“we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.”
Not only can we expect to be comforted by the eternal destiny of a follower of Christ, but that whenever anyone dies, a believer or non believer that we mourn, we who are believers can receive comfort in our mourning.
Listen to what Paul writes
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
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3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
When we are troubled or in mourning, we have a God who comforts us through His Spirit.
And even as He comforts us, He does that so we can comfort others. Therefore, when we are part of the body of Christ, part of the church, we are going to not only receive the comfort of His Spirit, but we will have others around us to help be there for us during times of mourning.
Lately we have had a number of people at Hickory Creek experience the death of a loved one. As I have talked with some of them, they are comforted in their mourning by their knowledge of the eternal destiny of their loved one as a believer in Jesus Christ as well as by the spirit of comfort and the people of the church who have brought comfort as the Lord has lead them.
Transition
Now, As we have looked at mourning and the comfort that we can receive, I believe these are biblical truths that can be applied to our life.
It is important for us always to keep our perspective on God’s Provision, His Justice and the Hope he has made available through Jesus Christ.
Now while all of those things are biblically true, I don’t believe that those are ultimately what this particular verse is talking about.
I believe what this verse is talking about in this context is that we can find God’s comfort when we
Recognize and mourn over the sin in our life
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We mourn and view our sin as God views it,
An evil that caused Jesus to have to go to the cross and pay for it,
An evil that brings terrible consequences into our own life and the lives our family.
I believe that too often that it is our pride that keeps us from truly mourning the sin in our life.
“Oh, it is just a little bit of sin”
“It is not that bad”
Instead, we need to mourn over what we have done. This is as true for me as anyone else. I have been in the category of making too light of sin, sin that caused my Savior to have to die on the cross, to suffer excruciating pain, ultimately to suffer separation from the Father on that cross.
Oh, Lord, forgive me.
This is a hard message for us to hear today. It is not something that makes us feel good in the moment, but when we recognize that ultimate consequences of what our sin has caused, it leads to repentance and comfort that God desires to pour out on us.
Listen to what Paul writes to the Corinthians in
2 Slides
2 Corinthians 7:8-10 - Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it-I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while- 9 yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
This is what I believe ultimately that Jesus is saying by saying “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
We need to be mourning our sin, not just the consequences in our own life that the world often mourns, but the actual sin, and repent and confess and experience comfort and joy that the Father who loves us desires for us to experience.
And while we mourn at first, we receive the comfort of the Lord through his purifying and cleansing work in our life.
1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (from New International Version)
Conclusion
This morning, I want to ask, do you mourn your sin?
If you are mourning your sin, rather than just the consequences in your life, then that is a godly sorrow that is leading you to repent and find the comfort of God through His cleansing.
If you are here today and only mourning the consequences of your sin in your life,
You are only experiencing a worldly sorrow that leaves regret and leads to death.
You can change that though by coming to and receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior, coming recognizing your spiritual poverty, your spiritual bankruptcy, and confessing your belief in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
Romans 10:9 - That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Are you willing to confess Him as your Savior?
Do you want to experience comfort in your mourning?
Then receive Jesus and recognize and mourn your sin and be comforted by the Spirit of Comfort today.
Let’s pray.
