They Who Mourn Series

They who Mourn

Matt. 5:4

When bad news or calamity came it was customary to tear clothes and cover the head with ashes or dust. Being dressed in sackcloth and ashes showed a time of grief and mourning.. Jeremiah, also known as the weeping prophet has been said to have trained professional mourners. .

JER 9:17 This is what the LORD Almighty says:

"Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come;

send for the most skillful of them. Let them come quickly

and wail over us till our eyes overflow with tears

and water streams from our eyelids. The sound of wailing is heard from Zion:

`How ruined we are! How great is our shame!

We must leave our land because our houses are in ruins.’ "

Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD;

open your ears to the words of his mouth.

Teach your daughters how to wail;

teach one another a lament.

Professional mourners are nothing new, Jesus encounters them in the funeral procession of the widow’s son, he encounters them at Jarius’ house. Simeon the prophet quotes Jeremiah when he laments over the loss of innocence, the murder of the baby boys in Bethlehem, so ordered by Herod.

“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more.” (Matt 2:18)

What is this mourning Jesus is referring to?

The Loss of innocence

1. Heresies promoted over Truth

2. Traditions are held higher than Scripture

We can sit and read throughout the pages of the Gospels and see how Israel has fallen to this, the Sadducees promoting there gospel, Gnosticism, and the like. Pharisees promoting traditions over scripture. We say Yes, that right they should mourn over that. How about us? We would say, we would never do that? Yet we do

The mourning Jesus is referring to is for national, personal, and corporate.

National level

1. How is abortion any different than what Herod did?

2. In America, truth is sometimes sacrificed over heresies, we don’t want the Bible taught in schools, yet we sit back and allow Islam, or Evolution, or any such thing to be taught.

3. Safe sex as opposed to abstinence.

4. The righteous should mourn over the loss of innocence of our Nation as it says in Ezekiel 9:4 "Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it."

Personal Level:

1. Dealing with personal sin; Ps 119:136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes,

for your law is not obeyed.

2. We take personal sin too lightly, remember the pursuit of Holiness starts with taking personal seriously. The expectation is contrite tears not crocodile tears.

Corporate Level (the church)

1. When our traditions overrule scripture; “we’ve never done it that way before.”

2. When we become so dogmatic, we reek of Phariseeism.

3. Let God be true and all men a liar.

We who consider ourselves Godly should mourn for the humiliation of our country and of His church, innocence lost.

Yet we have this promise: They will be comforted (Isa 61:1-3, Lk 4:16-19)

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,

because the LORD has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,

to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion--

to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness

instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.

This is what Jesus read in the Temple, it is his Messianic promise to us.

This is good news for the present as we share the gospel with our neighbors, it is good news for the future as we entrust this to our children, then the righteous shall be comforted

Martin Luther said: In the Beatitudes Jesus is saying nothing about how we become Christians, but only the works and fruit that no one can do unless he or she is already a Christian and in the state of Grace. The beatitudes set forth a set of blessings which God bestows as a gift of grace, those who are working toward such character.

Blessing we cannot have unless we are in Christ

Will you receive this blessing?

1. Repent

2. Believe

3. Confess

4. Be Baptized

5. Live a Godly life

Will you receive the blessing?