I. What tremendous mourning we have gone through in these past few months since 9-11.
A. We have mourned the loss of thousands of people murdered in the Trade Towers, the Pentagon, and in a field in Pennsylvania.
B. Matt 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. (NIV)
1. Mourning is not something we associate with being comforted or with happiness.
2. Mourning (synonyms) sorrow, lament, grieve, anguish, woe, heartache, heartbreak, distress, pain
3. Those words we do not connect with happiness nor comfort.
C. But Jesus is a counter revolutionary when it comes to finding real happiness.
II. Blessed are they that mourn . . .
A. In God’s perfect creation, there would have been no mourning.
1. What are some of the things we mourn?
a. We mourn the death of a close loved one. Why? Because we miss them.
b. We mourn the loss of health and physical strength.
c. We mourn relationships which are not the way we know they ought to be.
2. We mourn many things which are all a result of one thing, sin.
a. Sin is what wrecked God’s Garden of Eden, sin is what brought death and sickness.
b. Sin is what enmity between Canaan and Able and what has continued to bring anger, hatred, bigotry and murder ever since.
c. The story of history is the story of tears.
B. But our culture has taught us to suppress all forms of mourning.
1. John James and Frank Cherry, in their book on grief recovery, trace the story of a boy named Johnny.
2. When five-year-old Johnny's dog dies, Johnny is stunned, and he bursts out crying.
a. His dog was his constant companion; it slept at the foot of his bed.
b. Now the dog is gone, and little Johnny's a basket case.
c. Johnny's dad stammers a bit and says, "Uh, don't feel bad, Johnny, we'll get you a new dog Saturday."
d. In that one sentence, Johnny's dad is really offering the first two steps in society's grief management program:
e. Bury your feelings;
f. replace your losses. Once you have the new dog you won't even think about the old dog any more.
3. Later when Johnny falls in love with a high school freshman girl the world never looked brighter, until she dumps him.
a. Suddenly a curtain covers the sun.
b. Johnny's heart is broken, and this time it's big time hurt. It's not just a dog.
c. This is a person his heart was fixed on. John is a wreck.
d. But mom comes to the rescue this time and says with great sensitivity,
e. "Don't feel bad, John, there are other fish in the sea."
f. Bury the pain, replace the loss.
g. Johnny has steps one and two down pat now.
h. He'll use them the rest of his life.
4. Much later, John's grandfather dies--the one he fished with every summer and felt close to.
a. A note was slipped to him in math class.
b. He read the note and couldn't fight off the tears.
c. He broke down sobbing on his desk.
d. The teacher felt uncomfortable about it and sent him off to the school office to grieve alone.
e. When John's father brought him home from school, John saw his mother weeping in the living room, and he wanted to embrace her and cry with her.
f. But his dad said, "Don't disturb her, John, she needs to be alone.
g. She'll be all right in a little while. Then the two of you can talk."
5. The third piece in the grieving puzzle was now making sense to John:
a. Grieve alone. So he went to his room to cry alone, and he felt a deep sense of loneliness
b. Bury your feelings; replace your losses; grieve alone; let time heal; live with regret; never trust again.
c. How does that sound? It sounds familiar. It's been society's approach for years.
III. The Bible has nine terms used for sorrow, the one used here (pentheoô, mourn) is the strongest, the most severe.
A. It represents the deepest, most heart-felt grief, and was generally reserved for grieving over the death of a loved one.
1. It is used of the disciples’ mourning for Jesus before they knew He was raised from the dead (Mark 16:10).
2. The word carries the idea of deep inner agony, which may or may not be expressed by outward weeping, wailing, or lament.
B. True mourning, deep spiritual mourning, grieves sin and all it has caused.
1. Immeasurable divine love caused our Lord to weep at the death of Lazarus (John 11:35) and over the sinning people of Jerusalem, whom He wanted to gather into His care as a mother hen gathers her chicks (Matt. 23:37).
2. The Old Testament In addition to wailing and weeping, outward forms of mourning included tearing the clothes and wearing SACKCLOTH
C. When we mourn the a death, a sickness etc. God promises His comfort.
1. 1 Cor 15:55-57 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"
2. The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (NIV)
IV. For they will be comforted
A. The word here is will. There is a future promise. And a present promise
1. Sir Henry Taylor He that lacks time to mourn, lacks time to mend.
2. Some comfort comes only by taking time to mourn - a death of a loved one takes time.
B. As Christians, when we mourn for a loss of a loved one, the mourning of an illness, a loss of a job, etc. God promises to come and be beside us.
1. Comforted is not being alone in the midst of a struggle or trial
2. Lamartine Grief knits two hearts in closer bonds than happiness ever can; and common sufferings are far stronger links than common joys.
3. Comforted is from parakaleoô, the same word that, as a noun, is rendered Comforter, or Helper, in John 14:16, where we are told that Jesus was the first Helper, and the Holy Spirit is “another Helper.”
a. As our mourning rises to the throne of God, His unsurpassed and matchless comfort descends from Him by Christ to us.
b. Ours is the “God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3), who is always ready to meet our need, admonishing, sympathizing, encouraging, and strengthening. !
c. In the eternal heavenly state God “shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain” (Rev. 21:4).
C. We must also mourn our sin for only then will we receive comfort, Happiness, and healing. Dr. L. Nelson Bell a missionary surgeon, illustrates this with a parable.
1. The operating room was gleaming with the multiplied perfections of modern equipment.
2. Both the chief surgeon and his first assistant were men whose years of arduous training and experience had earned for them certification in their surgical specialty.
3. Then the anesthetist looked up and nodded his head. The patient was ready.
4. Then, looking around, Surgeon took up an instrument, but laid it down.
a. Then he took up another, but laid it down too.
b. He went from one to another, handling each of the various instruments.
5. It was a strange pantomime.
a. The surroundings were perfect, the patient desperately needed surgery, but the entire procedure consisted of meaningless motions.
b. The surgeon made no incision. He did not use the knife.
6. After an hour, the patient was rolled from the operating to the recovery room.
a. Before long it was obvious that the patient was no better.
b. The same old symptoms recurred.
c. There was still pain and weakness.
7. Why was the patient no better?
a. the surgeon does not use the knife.
b. There is no incision, no bleeding, no going down to the source of the illness, nothing is removed;
c. when the patient leaves the operating room, he is in exactly the same condition as when he went in."
V. Happiness comes with what God does in response to it, with the forgiveness that such mourning brings.
A. Godly mourning brings God’s forgiveness, which brings God’s happiness.
1. Mourning is not merely an emotional experience that makes people feel better.
2. It is a communion with the living, loving God who responds to the mourner with an objective reality—the reality of divine forgiveness!
B. The world says, “Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag, and smile, smile, smile.” Hide your problems and pretend to be happy. The same philosophy is applied to sin.
1. But Jesus says, “Confess your sins, and mourn, mourn, mourn.”
a. When we do that, our smiles can be genuine, because our happiness will be genuine.
b. Godly mourning brings godly happiness, which no amount of human effort or optimistic pretense, no amount of positive thinking or possibility thinking, can produce.
2. Until sin is forgiven and removed, happiness is locked out.
a. Mourning over sin brings forgiveness of sin, and forgiveness of sin brings a freedom and a joy that cannot be experienced in any other way.
b. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you,” James tells us. “Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (James 4:8-10).
C. Psalm 51. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin.
1. For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge (vv. 2-4).
2. To those who mourn God grants pardon, forgiveness, deliverance, strength and reassurance.
a. Jesus Christ with His own precious blood has fully satisfied all our sins, and delivered us from all the power of evil.
b. "They shall be comforted,” is Jesus’ promise.
