Vintage Christianity-Matt. 5:4-5
Vintage Christianity intro: vintage Christianity we are going to go back and look at the core, The way it’s supposed to be.
Not what does our culture say it means to follow Christ, not what do I say, not what does our church say, but what did Jesus say it meant to follow Him.
When Christ came He laid it out, very plainly how those who follow Him should live their lives. That’s what we want to get back to.
Last month saw it starts w/ our realizing our dependence on Him-poor in spirit, to come to him must first realize our need for him, our spiritual bankruptcy w/out him.
So Christ started w/ our attitude toward ourselves. Next he addressed our attitude towards our sins.
Vs. 4-God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Often confused by this-
-not the mourning over the loss of a loved one, but mourning over the loss of our innocence, our righteousness and our self respect-the sorrow of repentance
This is the second stage of the life of blessing that X calls us to-Is is one thing to recognize our spiritual poverty and acknowledge that before Him, but it is something more to grieve and mourn over that.
Recognizing our poverty is the intellectual side, & we’re good at that part, as conservative, protestant evangelical Christians we’ve mastered the art of intellectualizing our faith. but that is not enough in a holistic world: internet search for holistic. 1.4 million hits. From holisitic medicine, holistic design, holistic horses, holistic aromatherapy, dentistry, to food the church must provide a place for a holistic spirituality--we have been called to follow Him as whole persons-Love w/ heart, soul, mind and strength-feelings, intuition, thoughts, and body. In repentance we must come to him emotionally broken as well
Our emotional response to our need for God, our being poor in spirit must be Mourning over our own sins and the sins/evil in the world-
Examples from script.
Christ mourned over the city of Jerusalem Luke 19:41-44
“But as they came closer to Jerusalem and Jesus saw the city ahead, he began to cry….Your enemies will crush you to the ground, and your children with you….Because you have rejected the opportunity God offered you.”
The Psalmist- Ps. 119:136 “Rivers of tears gush from my eyes because people disobey your law.”
Ezekiel-Ez. 9:4 “Walk through the streets of Jer. And put a mark on the foreheads of all those who weep and sigh because of the sins they see around them.”
Paul-Phil. 3:18 “For I have told you often before, and I say it again w/ tears in my eyes that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of God.”
May our hearts be broken by the things that break the heart of God. We need to see sin as God sees it. When we do we will mourn not only over the evil in the world and but more importantly over the sin in our own lives.
When we mourn over sin, over the loss of our innocence, & our righteousness and our self respect-we will experience the sorrow of repentance and we will despise sin, we will see it the way that God sees it and seek to treat it the way that God does, realizing that it has no place in our lives.
& When we come w/ genuine repentance, look at what is promised-Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. w/ genuine repentance comes the comfort of full forgiveness through Christ & His death on the cross.
Vs. 5-Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Another one that I always had a hard time understanding-why
In our culture we tend to think of meek as weak, timid but that is not the biblical definition-look at two of the people the bible refers to as being meek-Moses and Jesus. Neither of these men are weak or timid. We need to redefine meekness to understand it in a biblical context-visual example help set the tone-Atticus finch clip from to Kill a Mockingbird
Literally-Power under control-Atticus could have become Arnold and thrown Ewill through the window and most people watching would have cheered, but we know that in holding his tounge and his fists he did the right thing. He had the power to throttle Ewill but he kept that power under control, so as to do the right thing and walk away.
praus-used by the Greeks to describe a horse that had been broken-all of that incredible natural raw power that the horse has, when it is broken is brought under the control of the trainer.
When we realize our need for God (poor in spirit) and our sinfulness (mourn)-our pride is broken, and we can begin live under God’s control.
Meekness is having that true view of oneself, and having that expressed in our attitude and actions towards others.
Other places this word is translated-humble or gentle
Sot it is Not exercising our “rights” and doing something because we can, but humbly serving others, allowing God’s power to flow through us as we serve Him by serving others because we understand who we are and that the only reason we are not hopelessly lost is because of Christ & his sacrifice.
“the man who is truly meek is the one who is truly amazed that God and man can think of him as they do and treat him as well as they do.”
The promise to the meek is that they will inherit the earth- be a part of Christ’s earthly messianic Kingdom
Mourn and meek-repent and be humble
