WELCOME & INTRODUCTION
IN MEMORIAM
Every year, media outlets and award ceremonies take moments to remember people who have passed away over the course of the year. Depending on which memoriam you are watching, you will see different names and different numbers of people mentioned. Most all of which are names that are recognizable to those in attendance. Here are a few names of people who have passed away this year (2022), in memoriam:
Louie Anderson, Comedian Gallagher, Robbie Coltrane, Kevin Conroy, Madeleine Albright, Ray Liotta,
Jerry Lee Lewis, Nichelle Nichols, Tony Dow, James Caan, Gilbert Gottfried, Bill Russell, Olivia Newton-John, Coolio, Loretta Lynn, Angela Lansbury, Kirstie Alley, Bob Saget, Sidney Poitier
Notice that most of these people have achieved a level of fame. These are typical of the names we see on these kinds of lists. Why? Because they are memorable to a majority of the people who hear these lists. More people are mourning the loss of these men and women in their contribution to the respective areas of impact. They have made an impact to many people—whether good or bad; positive or negative.
Today, we are heading into the next beatitude in the Sermon on the Mount. This next beatitude has to do with mourning those we have lost.
Let’s read our beatitude this morning. MATTHEW 5:4
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
Mourning. Hearing this makes us immediately think of death. When someone we love dies, we are comforted by God. I believe we do experience this. Especially believers because of the hope we have in eternal life—life beyond the grave. That one day we will rise to new life in Jesus again.
I believe we do receive some kind of consolation from other believers in time of loss and pain. That is one of the great encouragements of having a church family to surround us in our greatest time of need. But this is just one aspect of what I believe Jesus is telling people when he speaks this beatitude in his Sermon.
MOURNING DEATH
First, the death of our loved ones is difficult. Losing someone who we are close to and in some ways have spent our lives with hurts. I have empathy for people in these times of hurt. Most of us have lost family members in our lifetimes that we were close to. Husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, grandparents, children, best friends.
To ignore this part of Jesus’ beatitude would be to ignore a big part of what he was teaching that day. When Jesus says that those who mourn are blessed, it is because you have known what it means to have the love of a close family member. Jesus knew what that was like. Jesus has mourned death.
JOHN 11
The death of Lazarus was a significant part of Jesus’ life. So much that it is included in the 11th chapter of the book of John…a large chapter! Let’s read through part of this chapter and talk about this.
As an introduction to this story, what we know is Mary and Martha’s brother Lazarus was ill and had died. He was already dead for four days—time enough that his body would smell from decomposing but also time enough that to raise up alive again would be miraculous. We pick up our story in verse 17:
17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
Jesus Weeps
28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
Jesus Raises Lazarus
38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
There are a few things to notice in this story.
1. Jesus cares about his friends.
Mary, Martha, and Lazarus are all siblings. Jesus doesn’t just know one or two of them, but the entire family. And these siblings of Bethany knew Jesus intimately well also. So much that they call for him when Lazarus got sick. Jesus didn’t believe that the illness Lazarus had was deadly so he took his time to get there. Perhaps the sisters believed Jesus could heal Lazarus of his illness…but he dies.
2. Martha believes Jesus is the Son of God
Martha knows that had Jesus been there to heal Lazarus, he wouldn’t have died. She complains to him about him not being there sooner. She also had faith in Lazarus’ destination. She said, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection…”
Martha had faith and believed the things Jesus was teaching.
3. Jesus had human emotion just like was proclaimed.
Jesus saw everyone weeping and sad. It made him sad to see this. He was so moved and troubled. Then as many have had memorized from their youth, John 11:35 says, “Jesus wept.”
II CORINTHIANS 1:3-4
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
4. The teaching that Jesus gives us in the Sermon on the Mount is lived out here.
They will be comforted. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. The people had faith that Jesus could have healed Lazarus’ sickness. Martha even believed in the end time resurrection. He goes one step further and shows his divinity by raising the dead Lazarus (smelly and probably very pale) back to life.
This is who Jesus is. He walked among us and knew our hurts and pains. He wept with us. So, we weep when we lose loved ones. When Jesus teaches that the mourners are blessed, he empathizes with the reality that 100% of us will die and there will be people who mourn for each of us.
What Jesus wants us to also know is that we may mourn death, but we should also rejoice in the everlasting life that comes for those who have Jesus. Martha knew this. The dead in Christ will rise to new life in the resurrection at the end. It is those who die without Christ that we really should mourn for. They do not have that everlasting promise. We certainly mourn for the sake of missing our friends and our family when they pass. But we should mourn for those who do not know Jesus because their death is sadly forever.
What else do we mourn for?
MOURNING THE WORLD
We mourn for the nation and the world that doesn’t know Jesus. Increasingly, we can see ways that our world around us here in our country and in countries around the globe are not following God’s will for their lives. We see an increasing secularism that has banished any talk of God, any talk of Jesus Christ from public. We see a world that has embraced detestable things: sexualizing children, same-sex activity, idolatry, murder, selfishness, hatred of one another, and so many other things that I could spend all day listing—and I would be guilty of some of those things as could all of us.
Those of the world who does not follow Jesus will one day learn of their fate when they stand before God to be judged along with all the living and the dead.
Those of us who know Jesus, who have been baptized and are saved in the promised covenant with Jesus, we will have life anew. But we mourn for a world and a nation that does not know Jesus. We should be helping them to repent and be baptized for forgiveness so they will have the same eternity we will have.
EZEKIEL 9:4
And the Lord said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.”
PSALM 119:136
My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law.
PHILIPPIANS 3:18-19
18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
MOURNING THE CHURCH?
Who else might we mourn? As I thought about this, I had to include the church. Not any church or all church congregations—but those who call themselves religious. We, the people of God, ARE the church...so, if we are forgiven in Christ, we are part of the church. But I think about those in Scripture who were religious and knew the Scriptures who were also judgmental and not living the way they should be.
The Pharisees were those people. And, I believe we should mourn for those who live like the Pharisees lived. They thought they were doing what was right. They believed they had knowledge of God and loved Him, but inside they really were all about themselves.
They elevated their traditions over Scripture. Because what they did was the tradition, they believed they were doing what was right and good and pleasing. But truly they were a roadblock for those who were truly repentant and wanting to come to a better love and relationship with God by holding their sins over their heads. I think about people who would do that today. Treating people who need Jesus with contempt for their sins because the sins they commit sound worse than the sins the religious people commit. As I said earlier, I could list off many sins and I would be guilty of some…so would every one of us.
But it’s how we respond to those sins and how we treat others who also sin that we reflect on.
I also think about those churches that have walked away from Scripture in large part. There are churches that see Scripture as outdated and irrelevant. And somehow, they call Jesus Christ their Savior. Savior of what I don’t know. Because these progressive churches affirm sin and will view Scripture as a suggestion, not the Word of God.
Now I want to be careful to not condemn people. I am not the judge. I cannot claim to call down judgment on other churches. I do know what the Bible teaches. I also know what I believe are commands. I also know how to read Scripture in context and what applies and how. But I can mourn for those I believe are in error and who might need to repent. I pray for the souls of those people and for them to soften their hearts to the truth. And let me say this much—I may not be thinking of the same thing you do when I say these churches are in error—so don’t hear me incorrectly. I am intentionally not being specific because I want us to not judge our neighbors when we all have specks in our eyes to work on.
There is a comedian Mark Lowry that I want to quote here. He once said,
“I have hated the sin and loved the sinner too long. I don’t have time to hate your sin. Hate your own sin. How about you hate your sin, I’ll hate my sin. And then, we can love on each other!”
…and I do hate sin, but MY sin is great and I have that log of sin in my own eye that I need to work on. I need to love my neighbor. I mourn for the churches that are dying. Our churches of Christ are continuing to close their doors. I mourn that. I mourn our slow and painful death. And we need to change this. We need to seek ways to reach our children for the future of the church. If we continue to do things the way we always do them, our kids will walk away—they already are.
WHAT ELSE DO WE MOURN?
There are other things we can and do mourn and things we should mourn. So what? Those who mourn are blessed. Why? They will be comforted.
COMFORTED HOW?
We find comfort in Jesus. In Jesus’ kingdom there is comfort. In Jesus’ love there is comfort. In Jesus’ peace there is comfort. In Jesus’ salvation there is comfort.
JAMES 4:8-10
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
We find comfort knowing that Jesus has already taken care of all the pain and sorrow. We may experience that here and now in our real-life world. We see things every day that bring mourning and sadness. Some of us wonder why we bother…why doesn’t Jesus just make everything better now? He wants all to know him.
I TIMOTHY 2:4
[God…] who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
This Creation (including the people in our lives) were made for us. I don’t know about you, but I find joy in knowing my family, in making friends, in the people of the church, loving my neighbors, and being able to spend time here on this planet. I like this.
I am looking forward to eternity. No more pain. No more fear. No more sorrow. I hope everyone will come to know Christ and enjoy eternity with me. But I have to talk to them about Jesus.
REVELATION 21:4
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
That’s our challenge this week. If we don’t want to mourn those who don’t know Jesus, then let’s tell them about him. My challenge to you is to talk to your neighbors about Jesus. Find a time to go knock on a neighbor’s door and just have a conversation about Jesus. Tell them you were thinking about them and wanted to tell them the good news of the gospel of Jesus. Ask them if you can pray for them. And invite them to church next Sunday. Hand them one of the cards on the Welcome Center. This one isn’t as easy. We have become embarrassed about asking people if they know Jesus. It’s time to end that feeling. We all know the future goal and we want them with us do we not?
If you don’t have a neighbor…maybe you live in an awkward spot or far out in the country. Pray for God to send someone to you. Maybe it’s someone delivering a package to your door. Maybe it’s the person you stand with at the checkout at the grocery store. This is your sign! Talk to them. Ask them if they know Jesus. Do you love Jesus? He loves you.
Sometimes people who mourn are angry with God, angry that Jesus wasn’t there to save their loved one from death. Tell them that Jesus has been in that very situation. He weeps when we weep. John 11:35. Jesus is sad too. But he wants us to also have joy and we find that in our relationship with him.
Blessed are you who mourn. You will be comforted. Find comfort in Christ.
INVITATION
