I wrote this sermon after listening and meditating on the song by John G. Elliott, Mecy All The Way,
It’s Been Mercy All The Way
Chorus 1
Mercy mercy
Goodness and kindness
Love and forgiveness
Mercy mercy
It’s been mercy all the way
It’s been mercy all the way
Verse 1
Lord I thank You
For Your faithful mercy
All my footsteps
Have been guarded by grace
From this moment on
My heart will praise You
Lord I love You
Lord I love You
Verse 2
You have loved me
With a great compassion
You have spared me
From the pain I deserve
Here’s my heart
Oh may it bring You pleasure
Lord I love You
Lord I love You
CCLI Song #2284352
© 1996 Galestorm Music
John G. Elliott
For use solely in accordance with the SongSelect Advanced Terms of Agreement. All rights Reserved.
CCLI License #301461
IT’S BEEN MERCY ALL THE WAY!!
1 Peter 1:3-4,1 John 2:1-2
This little girl reported at home what she had learned at Sunday school concerning the creation of Adam and Eve: “The teacher told us how God made the first man and the first woman. He made the man first. But the man was very lonely with nobody to talk to him. So God put the man to sleep. And while the man was asleep, God took out his brains and made a woman out of them.”
Another Sunday school teacher asked her class to draw a picture illustrating a Bible story. One paper handed in contained a picture of a big car. An old man, with long whiskers flying in the breeze, was driving. A man and woman were seated in the back of the car. Puzzled, the teacher asked little Johnny to explain his drawing. “Why, that is God. He is driving Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden.”
Now, despite what we may think of these comments, children, more often than not, only repeat what has been said to them. They also relate to what they can see!! A couple of other comments from children regarding the punishment Adam and Eve received include these:
“No more garden parties” said 9 year old Milly.
“They couldn’t have apples or applesauce for a week” said 5 year old Beth.
“they had to hunt for their food. The food didn’t just come to them and give in” said 7 year old Nicholas.
And probably my favorite is this. When asked about the punishment that Adam and Eve received as a result of eating from the tree, 10 year old Gabriel simply said:
“Adam and Eve had to leave that garden neighborhood, but we’re going to get back there one of these days….I have faith in that.”
That last statement, by 10 year old Gabriel speaks volumes!! We will get back there someday. We will be in that place where we have perfect fellowship with God! The great joy of walking hand in hand with Him in paradise! But first, we must receive God’s mercy.
Mercy, as defined by people today is an uncertain word. People in court see “mercy” as leniency in sentencing. Older children today sometimes play a game they call “mercy”, wherein they stand, face to face, clasp hands together, and try to beat one another into submission by pushing their hands against each other and using their fingers and knuckles to try to weaken their opponent.
Yet what is mercy, as defined by God?
I like the way Billy Graham puts it because his statement defines our need for mercy. Said Billy Graham: "We’re suffering from only one disease in the world. Our basic problem is not a race problem. Our basic problem is not a poverty problem. Our basic problem is not a war problem. Our basic problem is a heart problem. We need to get the heart changed, the heart transformed."...
You see, God’s mercy is there to transform our hearts and minds!! His mercy is there, so that we can know Whom we can bring our hearts to…our sinful stubborn hearts….Who is it, after all, that can transform your heart? Can your wife or husband transform your wicked heart? Can your children? Or parents? Who can do such a thing? I believe that the only way our wicked hearts can be transformed is by the mercy of Christ. The mercy He showed us on the cross. Now I want to give you an anagram of the word mercy to display what it means.
To begin with, God’s mercy involves His
M………Martyrdom for
E……….Everyone
The Holman’s Bible dictionary defines “Martyrdom” as “A witness, one who gives His life for a cause.” As that song played said “You have spared me from the pain I deserve.” Jesus, in mercy, gave Himself through martyrdom to spare us from the pain we deserved. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death.”
Because of sin, Jesus gave Himself over to death to save us from enduring the wages of sin. In fact, Jesus gave His entire being over to us: He gave us His heart, His body, His soul!!! He gave us all of these through martyrdom.
And Jesus’ mercy, shown to us by His sacrifice, is God’s love for us in action.
This was not only true in His death, but it was also very true in His life!! Jesus was met with cries of mercy everywhere He went!! From the father of an epileptic boy came the cry “mercy”. From a leper hiding outside of the city, he heard the cry “mercy”. From the woman with a possessed daughter, he heard the cry of a desperate mother shouting “mercy!” And Jesus gave mercy to each one of these cries!! His healing power displayed His mercy here, healing the epileptic, taking the skin diseases away from people who cried out His name, casting the demons out of people with just His word to do so! He restored each of these people to fullness in a physical sense.
But the ultimate act of mercy by Jesus involves the restoration of you and me to a state of righteousness before God. Through Christ, giving His life for our sake, the ultimate form of mercy was shown through martyrdom. His martyrdom, in fact, is not just for the church people…it is for everyone!! He died once for all! And just as Jesus emptied that demon possessed daughter of that wicked spirit, it is by the cross that He is able to empty us of anything that spiritually plagues us! The healings that Christ did while on earth are but an example of what would happen by His martyrdom! Once Christ gave His life for us, then God’s Holy mercy would flood the land!! It is when we realize this that we step into that cleansing flood…that we come into a right relationship with the Father. It is when we realize this that we can come together in unity and harmony as people restored by the Love of God shown in Christ.
As I said this is an anagram of Mercy. We’ve seen how Jesus became a martyr for everyone. M.E. Then we come to the letters R.C. I believe through Scripture that in the R.C., we can see His
R…….Resurrection, and His
C…….Compassion.
Without the forgiveness of sins through His sacrifice, there would be no redemption! This is true, but without the resurrection of Jesus, there would also be no hope for tomorrow! No eternity!!
When He arose from the dead, He also opened up the doors of heaven to invite us in if we will believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Jesus’ resurrection has been called the central defining moment of Christianity. Without the resurrection of Christ in fact, there would be no Christianity!!
In the Greek language, resurrection means “to stand again.” It is because of Jesus Christ and His standing up again after He was executed…standing up again after death that we have hope!! That we, as Christians can realize that there is a tomorrow in our future!!
Resurrection also means the restoration of the whole self by God. He gave His life for us, and creates for us new bodies, new minds, new hearts and souls! Right now, as Christians, we are in the process of this creation. But when we get to the heavenly kingdom prepared for us, the creation of newness will be completed. All because of what Jesus said and what He did.
It is by the way of His resurrection that He also displays His great compassion for us. “You have loved me with a great compassion, You have saved me from the pain I deserve!”
Now I believe this is actually the witness made by each of the disciples of Christ after He had risen from the dead, but I can see one disciple in particular saying this: Thomas.
We all know a little about Thomas anyways. He has been labeled for years as “Doubting Thomas” because (I believe) he was so distraught at having seen Jesus’ horrific death on the Roman cross that he could not bring himself to fathom the idea that this man, who had been torn to shreds just days earlier was now walking around. Even though he had heard the truth from his closest friends who had seen the Risen Christ, he was still doubtful.
Well, Jesus, rather than being overly critical of Thomas, rather than berating him, or demeaning him is compassionate with him. Thomas had said that essentially “I must see the nail marks in his hands, I must put my finger where the nails were, I must put my hand into the side where He was pierced with a Roman sword.” The Greek verb translated “put” in this statement is balo which is an emphatic verb. It means to “throw into”. So what Thomas was saying here was “I must throw myself into His wounds to realize that He lives.” This is a strong statement, which Jesus compassionately answers. The resurrected Christ therefore is compassionate with Thomas allowing him to thrust his hand into the wounds which Christ bore for him.
Is He not also compassionate with us? How often are we doubtful about things? About His direction for our lives? About going out and witnessing for Him, about saying something godly in the midst of ungodly talk? And yet He still loves us deeply. And He still tells us to “thrust our hands into His wounds”; to recognize that He died for our sins, and has risen again for our glory! In other words, He still has great mercy for us despite the fact that we often foul up in living out our Christianity!! Where that song says “You have spared me from the pain I deserve”, I must say “AMEN.” He has spared us. But now HE calls us to see the depth of the great love He has for us. Thrust your hands into His wounds. We serve a risen Savior, but we also serve a Savior who shows us compassion when we most need it.
The M-E (Martyrdom for Everyone). The R-C (Resurrection and Compassion). And the final letter in this acrostic is the Y.
Y……..You.
He did this for you. He went through pain, torture, death, and resurrection all for you. This is a greater love than we have ever known or will ever know. The love Christ has for you.
What will your response be? “Here’s my heart, Oh may it bring you pleasure…Lord I love you. Lord I love you.” The mercy seat is open as we play this song
