Blessed are the Merciful
CCCAG October 1st, 2017
Scripture- Matthew 5:7
I’m going to share something fresh from the headlines this morning. This is a very controversial topic for many, so I humbly ask you to listen with an open heart and mind and wait until I get this out before you shut mentally shut me off or allow your own opinions or emotions concerning this subject close your ears to what I’m going to talk about.
Last Sunday afternoon, I was enraged. I hadn’t been that angry in a long time.
The reason I was angry was from watching NFL players, even those overseas kneel in apparent disrespect to our flag and our national anthem. In addition, those overseas disrespected the anthem of their county, while standing for God Save the Queen.
You can ask Tammie- I was seeing red.
As a veteran, and as a man who loves his country, the blatant disrespect shown by an organization and by men who enrich themselves off the very nation they are now spitting on made me want to do and say some very un-Christlike things. All I could think of is that people on the armed forces network were watching their American football teams disrespect them and their country while they were in harms way for that very country. I thought of all of the men who I knew, and even some family members who came home in flagged draped coffins- that they sacrificed their lives and their futures so that a bunch of millionaire could join the latest social media cool kids club and protest something that most didn’t even understand.
Of course, social media blew up with people typing in caps at one another- if you don’t know that’s the online equivalent of shouting, which just made me even angrier that many people, even many pastors didn’t see the problem with this so-called peaceful protest. That anger was smoldering into Tuesday morning- the next time I got to spend some time alone with God.
During that alone time, I looked up the verse I’d be preaching on this week and thought….OUCH. Mercy
I’m going to read that scripture today, and then we are going to look at what Jesus is saying, and how it applies to our lives today.
Matthew 5:7
Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy
Prayer
Big idea- The subject of Mercy is the litmus test of our Christianity. Just like Litmus tests are used in chemistry to prove the purity of a chemical, and mercy proves the purity of our faith in Christ.
Mercy is an attribute that we want applied to our lives. However, when it comes to everyone else, we want justice.
Let me illustrate that statement a little before we get into what Jesus was referring to here-
Let’s say you are in a hurry, and you need to get cash out of the ATM, and it’s pouring rain out. For your bank, the only non-fee ATM around is at Gordy’s here in Whitehall. As most people know, Gordy’s parking is can be problematic on the best day. You drive in the lot, and there are no parking spaces anywhere except the one handicap space next to the door. Street parking is full up to a block in every direction, and the next closest space you see is across the street in the bank, but again, it’s pouring rain and you have no umbrella.
What do you do? Park in the handicap spot and run in knowing you’ll be less than 2 minutes? You hope for mercy in that situation even knowing it’s against the law to park in that spot.
You come back out to discover a huge dent in your bumper from the person in the handicap van that ran into your car in protest of you taking their spot.
What do you do? Call a cop and ask for justice?
I think most of us would react just like the person in that scenario- mercy for ourselves, and justice for everyone else.
Are we all properly confused or convicted yet? Good- it’s intentional.
Let me speak to what Jesus is teaching us here about Mercy-
The first thing we need to understand about this concept of mercy is
I. Mercy is the fruit or an intended consequence of a righteousness received
I want you to look at the beatitudes as a whole for a moment and watch how they are building upon each other-
Blessed are the poor in spirit
Blessed are those who mourn
Blessed are the meek- these 3 beatitudes, or beautiful attitudes of Jesus speak of a person’s repentance and dying to themselves.
The result of people dying to themselves is they should be losing their appetites for soulish or fleshly pursuits and instead be gaining a pursuit of righteousness
The first fruit of that pursuit is we begin to understand what it means to be merciful.
The next several beatitudes are also a fruit of this pursuit of righteousness that we will be getting into in the coming weeks.
We could talk about the high-minded ideals of the bible, but I want to bring this down to where we live and what it looks like in real life.
In real life, and how we live out our faith in Jesus- Mercy is righteousness in action
In John chapter 8, there is the account of a woman caught in adultery- in the very act of it. This woman was ripped from the bedroom and thrown at the feet of Jesus by the Pharisee’s and they asked Him what he should do.
Makes you wonder which one the Pharisee’s had the peeping tom duty that week that she was caught.
Most of us know the story-
The woman, probably a married woman, was having an affair with a married man not her spouse.
The Pharisee’s were following the law of Moses found in the Old Testament, specifically Lev 20:10, commanded that both the people involved in the adultery had to be put to death, and that is death by stoning, with the chief accuser, usually the husband of the woman involved, throwing the first stone.
So by the Old Testament law, the Pharisee’s are absolutely correct in their interpretation and in their application of the law as they knew it, with the exception of the man involved not also being there, but that was not the real issue here.
This was an effort to trap Jesus because in their minds no matter what He said, they could use it against HIM-
If Jesus says that the law must be obeyed, they would point out that Jesus must obey the whole of the law then and to stop teaching immediately and subject Himself to their authority as God’s chosen priests and religious leadership. Since Jesus came from the line of Judah, he was disqualified from being a priest in the temple and therefore needed to stop all ministry activities immediately.
However, if Jesus refuses to condemn this woman and continue the message of grace and forgiveness, they could brand Him as an unrighteous heretic and violator of God’s law as given through Moses, and have an immediately justification for having Him stoned.
Jesus recognizes the trap, and masterfully paints them into a corner of their own making-
“If there is anyone here who is without sin, you cast the first stone”
The bible says that they all walked away- the oldest first, and then the younger. The order that they dropped their rocks and left Jesus is significant in that-
those with a few more years under their belt, especially those who follow Jesus begin to understand that they aren’t “all that”. As the Holy Spirit continues to peel away all the junk that made up John Oscar before salvation, I get glimpses of who I really am, and realize that apart from Jesus I’m wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and spiritually naked on my best day, and I need more and more of God’s grace and mercy to even take breath much less act righteously.
Even though the law had said what this woman and the man did was wrong, evil, and hateful in the eyes of the law and that according to the law she deserved death, Jesus acted righteously with this woman, knowing the heart of God for her. Jesus showed mercy.
We have four books listing the words of Jesus, and for the most part, His words were encouraging merciful, and life giving for those who come to Him with humility.
But Jesus lost His mind on religious people who insisted on using God’s law to condemn and in doing so prop up their own pride in their supposed righteousness.
Jesus called people like that whitewashed tombs, snakes, children of the devil, and sons of hell.
This idea of Mercy being more important than levying judgement against people and worshipping the law was exemplified by Jesus’s little brother James who said this
Jas 2:13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
If you are here today and have not become a disciple of Jesus you will be judged by the law and how well you followed it. Without Jesus’ sacrifice covering your violations of that law, you will enter judgement.
That’s bible and Christianity 101. It’s not intolerance or being narrow minded about other lifestyles, that’s the very word of God about our personal sin.
For those who are believers and disciples of Jesus, remember last week when I said God doesn’t judge believers based on performance but upon pursuit.
Part of your pursuit of God and His righteousness will be how you allow this beautiful attitude of Jesus to be shown in your life.
Here is your litmus test that proves if Jesus’s beautiful attitude of mercy is really ruling in your heart-
When you see sin or unrepentance sinners, do you react immediately with disgust and anger? If so, you might have a little Pharisee in you.
When people directly sin against you, do you react defensively and lash out against them somehow? If so, your inner Pharisee is trying to defend your sense of personal righteousness instead of trusting in Jesus for it.
That leads us to our next point about mercy-
II. Mercy is not dependent upon how you feel
We in the church have a problem, and it’s the same problem that historically all Christians have had-
We confuse our secular comforts, preferences, and safety with spiritual truth.
I bring up the recent NFL controversy again.
My feelings on the matter are that I will not support by my viewership or my finances any organization that chooses to disrespect the flag or our national anthem by using it as a protest.
However, I don’t nor can expect everyone else to be as passionate about this issue as I am. Particularly, if you did not serve time in uniform nor were you raised by people who served time in uniform I can’t expect you to have the same passion about it that I do. In fact, not all veterans share my opinion.
On the flip side of the coin, and this is where mercy comes into the picture for those of us who have this same current opinion as me about the NFL’s actions-
I didn’t grow up African American, or for ease of speaking-black.
Spending most of my life in the city, I grew up living around people of all ethnicities, and had a few black friends in high school and dated a few black women. Even though a few of my family routinely dropped the “N” word, I always thought that was stupid because they were people just like me, just with a slightly different culture and way of looking at things.
In fact, one of the few times I have ever protested something was when the KKK came to Kenosha and wanted to do a white power parade, I stood with my black friends in protest to their stupidity.
Serving in the military further erased any thoughts of racism in my mind as you are taught from day one of basic training there is only one color in the Army and that is green- the color of the uniforms at that time.
Therefore, I’ve never considered myself a racist. I believe all humanity is made in Imago Dei- the image of God.
Saying all of that, I don’t consider myself an expert on how black American’s in 2017 view our country. Personally, I think many of them have bought into a media driven lie that everyone from the police to the government to the culture is out to get them,
Again, I think it’s a lie but that is how they feel. Once you get emotions involved all the evidence to the contrary won’t matter- that’s how powerful our emotions are.
How many people here have known a person who has “fallen in love” with someone who is so bad for them? NO logic, evidence, or opinion will change their minds until it’s too late.
In my defense of honoring the flag and the anthem, I was sharply criticized by other pastors, albeit ones that have more of a liberal mindset, about not showing mercy to those who feel oppressed in this county.
My initial response was probably wasn’t very Christlike as it was very sarcastic, “You mean the guys on the field making millions of dollars who drive luxury cars and living in mansions are oppressed? Sign me up for some of that oppression. They play with a ball and make millions, and I save lives and can’t break $50k so if you want to talk about inequality you probably should pick a different person.”
The next reply had to do with me being a Nazi (Goodwins law internet adage) so I just stopped commenting on that person’s status.
On Sunday, this scenario repeated itself several times until I just stopped commenting about it. It got so bad and I got so angry that I was seconds from ruining friendships.
Then Tuesday I’m sitting at the hospitals on call house starting to outline the message for this week- and it’s on mercy. After some prayer and the Holy Spirit regaining control over my heart and emotions, I went back and deleted all my posts on the subject. My mind had not changed on bit on it, but my response did.
I start studying this idea that mercy is unmerited (not earned) favor. If you have been around Christianity for awhile, you have heard that definition repeated over and over again.
What that means in plain English is this-
Mercy is undeserved kindness
Mercy is undeserved courtesy
Mercy is undeserved love
Mercy is undeserved forgiveness
That is why the bible says,
Mercy triumphs over judgement
Mercy is the reaction of a heart surrendered to Jesus that refuses to take offense.
Mercy breaks down what is eternally important from the present unimportant.
One of the questions I felt the Holy Spirit impress on me about the NFL’s actions was this-
I will be alive for all eternity in heaven as will any who trust Jesus as Lord and savior, so-
Will the fact that the American National Anthem and flag being disrespected mean anything 1 million years from now?
1000 years from now?
100 years from now?
10 years?
1 Year
1 Month before we get upset over something else?
Now ask the same question about the souls of the people protesting. (Pause)
Because there are certain segments of our society and media pundits that want me to withhold love or mercy from them.
I don’t have to agree with a person’s actions to love and show mercy to the person involved. If agreeing with 100% of a person’s actions was the metric for showing mercy and love I’d hate everyone including myself.
That is why Mercy is a decision that can only come from a heart that has given itself over to Jesus. You and I cannot show mercy on our own- it’s the natural response of a heart that has been born again.
Mercy is so important to God and to Jesus because you and I are the biggest beneficiaries of it.
That brings us to our Last point-
III. Believers are to practice Mercy because we benefited from it first
In Matthew chapter 18, Jesus tells the parable of the unforgiving servant.
For time’s sake, I’ll condense it a little and modernize it so that it makes more sense to a 21st century mind, but I encourage you to read it, pray over it, and study it- Matt 18:21-35
Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive a person who wrongs him.
So, what is forgiveness? Let’s define forgiveness
It’s showing mercy when someone has wronged you
Jesus uses a story to show what mercy and forgiveness looks like-
A king decides to settle all of his financial accounts, and calls everyone who owes the crown money to come and pay off their debts.
A man shows up who owes the king millions and millions of dollars and cannot pay it. The king in this story has the absolute power to throw this man in prison and forced labor, sell everything he has including his wife and children into slavery to settle the account. The man knows this and he falls on his face and begs the king to have mercy and forgive him and his debt. The king, being a righteous man and shows mercy, forgiving the debtor and sends him on his way.
The man is full of joy leaving the chamber of the king completely forgiven. One the way out the door, he spots a man he loaned $5 to last week and says, “Hey, you owe me $5, pay up!” The man says, “Sorry dude, I don’t have any cash on me, but I’ll get it to you soon”
The recently forgiven guy freaks out, and immediately posts on his Facebook page (I’m modernizing this a little bit) that this guy who owned him the $5 is scum, doesn’t pay his debts, and everyone should avoid doing business with him or even going to his store to buy anything from him. He tries to destroy him via social media.
What he doesn’t know-
The king’s chief accountant is one of his followers on Facebook. He immediately looks at his phone when that status is posted, all while he is writing off that man’s debt in the ledgers. The accountant calls the king, and shows him the Facebook post.
The king immediately calls for that man to be brought before him.
“I forgave you millions of dollars of debt, and now you are going to ruin this man’s life over a $5 bill?”
Turning to his legal team, he tells them, “I want this guy in prison. I want you to go after everything this man has. I want his great, great, great grandchildren still paying off his debt by the time you are done with him”
Jesus ends this story with this statement, written in emphatic Greek- In English that means this statement would written in caps with exclamation points before and after-
Jesus said, “If you, who God has forgiven every single sin you ever have committed fail to do the same to those around you, you will be shown no mercy at the judgement.”
Mercy is the litmus test of our faith in Jesus- through it’s application is either proves it, or through it’s withholding proves it isn’t real.
Because if you are going to withhold mercy from others, then the next time you mess up, I want you to be consistent in your life and to pray that God immediately executes judgement upon you for your sin.
So I ask you today- are you withholding mercy from someone who needs it from you?
Conclusion- how we should feel about the NFL controversy or any of these things that seek to divide us as a nation or people.
The moment that anger starts to form, squash it with prayer for those involved.
