Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / The Sermon On The Mount

Raising The Bar By Using Tears 05/13/07

Sermon Series: Raising the Bar: Living Above Mediocrity

Message:  ‘Raising the bar by using tears’         Text: Matthew 5:4

Introduction:

Gray skies are gonna to clear up.

Put on a happy face
Brush off the clouds and cheer up.

Put on a happy face

I knew a girl so gloomy. She'd never laugh or sing
She wouldn't listen to me.

Now she's a mean ol' thing

So spread sunshine all over the place.
Just, put on a happy face.

That could be the theme song for American society. We exert a great deal of effort to avoid sadness and tears. And yet, if we were honest we would have to admit that sometimes we feel like Proverbs 14:13 ‘Even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in grief.’

Have you ever noticed that often at funerals some people introduce levity (they tell jokes) because they can’t handle the sadness? It’s a way of avoiding something that the Bible tells us we need to deal with, in fact we ought to practice….

Mourning.

In Luke 6:25  Jesus tells us

‘Woe to you who laugh now,

for you will mourn and weep.’

Transition: Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 5:4 (pg. 739 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you). Here we’ll find that we raise the bar of spiritual expectations and actions in our lives by using tears.

Read: Matthew 5:4

I. Who is saying this?

I find it, at times, unsettling when someone who has never gone through what I am going through says  ‘I know how you feel.’ And then proceed to give me advice on just how to handle the situation I’m in. Sometimes, I just want to say ‘Who are you to tell me how to act when you have no idea what I’m going through?’

The good news is we never have to say that about Jesus. Think for a moment who’s telling us to mourn.

Read: Isaiah 53:3 ‘He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised…’

Jesus has been there. He’s experienced the full depth of sorrow. He understands our need to experience joy but he’s telling us that sometimes, that road to joy goes through mourning. And he’s speaking to all of us.

II. Who is he saying this to?

The first beatitude confronted us with our deep need to recognize and accept our utter dependence upon God…that we have nothing to offer him that would earn us eternal life. In fact the only thing we do have is sin.

Jesus structured his sermon so that we would see that the ‘poor in spirit’ of the 1^st beatitude become the mourners of the 2^nd beatitude.  Let’s look at it a different way.

·       The first step of a blessed life, a life of approval by God,  is the recognition that we’re poor in spirit, that we have a deep need in our lives, a need brought about by our sin.

·       The second step is our response to the first step, we mourn over our sin.

Let me try one more time. Spiritual bankruptcy (the 1^st beatitude) should always lead to spiritual brokenness (the 2^nd beatitude).

Why? When we fail to mourn our sin, it gets a foothold in our lives because we fail to see sin as God sees it. We leave God out of the picture and sin gets easier the next time. You see, true mourning doesn’t focus on self but on God who forgives and removes our sin.

Transition: Mourning… I’ve been talking about it but have failed to define it.

III. What does it mean to ‘mourn’?

A. Definition

Pentheo in the Greek. It’s the strongest of the 9 words used in the Bible meaning extreme mourning, grieving, or sadness.

Quote: Commentator William Barclay defines it as ‘Not only the sorrow which brings as ache to the heart; it’s the sorrow which brings unrestrained tears to the eyes.’

This often comes at the point of salvation when we realize our sin and utter dependence upon God for forgiveness and eternal life. But, I want you to notice that this beatitude is also talking about each time we sin. How do I know that? The word for mourn in the Greek is in the present tense. That means there’s an ongoing act of mourning that should accompany the confession of our sin.

And it should come from a deep place in our hearts.

B. Emotional Response

Our sin caused the death of God’s Son, Jesus.

Our sin caused the death of God’s Son, Jesus.

Our sin caused the death of God’s Son, Jesus.

If that doesn’t stir your heart…

·       Acknowledging that we’re poor in spirit is intellectual, a cognitive function of our brain.

·       mourning over our sin is emotional, a movement of our heart.

It’s the kind of mourning that can’ easily be hidden. It’s sorrow that not only brings pain to the heart but tears to the eyes.

Another way to paraphrase this beatitude is

‘Those whose hearts break over sin are approved by God and will enter the Kingdom of heaven.’

Transition: Let’s get more specific about the ‘what’ of mourning. Is it just sin that we mourn or is there more?

IV. What should we mourn?

A. Personal loss

First, we mourn personal loss.

·       Loss of a job that had supported your family

·       Loss of property that was taken from you by natural disaster, financial difficulties or the sin of another.

·       Loss of loved ones either by physical distance, estrangement or death.

·       As we get older, loss of dignity as we’re not able to do all we once did.

Many in the Bible knew what it meant to mourn for personal loss.

·       King David was deeply grieved when his rebellious son, Absalom was killed in battle.

·       Many of us grieve, mourn the death of loved ones.

·       And some of us grieve, mourn the rebellion of our children.

It’s right to mourn personal loss, but remember, God heals the broken hearted.

Read: Isaiah 61:1 ‘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’

That’s God’s promise in Jesus Christ…but more on that in a bit.

When was the last time you mourned loss in your life?

B. Personal Sin

It’s important, however, to understand mourning in light of our immediate context…the beatitudes.

Followers of Jesus Christ mourn over their sin and the separation from God that comes to their life from sin. We can’t pass our sin off as just a ‘mistake’ an ‘indiscretion’ or ‘error’.

Remember, mourning for our sin is not focused on us… not even on our sin really, but on God who we sinned against and in whom we find forgiveness and comfort.

Read: Psalm 51:3-4 ‘For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight…’

Followers of Jesus Christ remember this is not just an intellectual assent to the fact that we sin, it’s an emotional outpouring of our hearts,

a ‘feeling bad’ about our sin. The ‘feeling bad’ part is an aid to keep us from wanting to sin in that way again.

Read: James 4:9-10 ‘Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.’

Mourning over our personal sin is essential to spiritual health. If you want to have a vibrant, authentic, fellowship with God then you must come face to face with your sin…and it should make you feel bad enough that you don’t want to do it again.

When was the last time you mourned your sin?

C. Societal Sin

Read: Proverbs 14:9 ‘Fools mock at making amends for sin…’

Today in our society there’s a great deal of laughter about sin. All you have to do is turn on the TV or go to the movies. Sin is not only renamed something else… it’s accepted, and even encouraged. And Satan wins because the sin we choose to laugh at today, may be the sin we choose to do tomorrow.

We need to mourn the sin in our community and in the world. Just as Jesus did.

Read: Luke 19:41-44 ‘As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

Jesus’ heart was broken for Jerusalem not only because they rejected him, but because they will remain lost and in sin. As a result of rejecting Jesus, the people of Jerusalem faced great judgment. And Jesus wept for them.

We live in a world that’s lost and in sin, but somehow Christians have forgotten what that means. A sermon was once preached titled ‘A dry eyed church in a hell bound world.’ Is that an accurate description of us today?

Where are the Christians who will mourn the lost in the world?

The wife of the great Scottish reformer John Knox would tell him to get some sleep after spending hours each night praying. He replied ‘How can I sleep when my land is not saved?’

One of the reasons we place such a high priority on Kingdom Building is that many here mourn the lost in our world and want to see many come to faith in Jesus Christ.  

When was the last time you mourned for the lost around the world?

Transition: Jesus not only tells us how to live as Christians, but what happens when we do.

V. What is the promise to those who mourn?

A. They will be blessed

The promise to those who mourn is blessing. Remember from last week, we saw that to be blessed by God means to have God’s approval. Those who mourn are approved by God. But that’s not all. God is generous in his goodness.

B. They will be comforted

Read: Psalm 34:18 ‘The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.’

Those who mourn will also be comforted by God.

·       Our broken hearts will be healed…yes! And amen!

·       Our sadness will be turned into laughter…yes! And amen!

·       Our gloom will be turned into joy…yes! And amen!

·       But most importantly…. Our sin will be forgiven. Amen?

Conclusion

As far as I have studied, Christianity is the only religion that allows you to be real.

·       When you’re hurting, let it out.

·       When you feel like crying, let the tears fall.

·       God understands and he cares.

·       He will comfort you.

I don’t know how you feel this morning. I don’t know what losses you are experiencing. But I am confident that God knows and is willing to comfort you with his presence, by touching your life with his heart of compassion and offering you forgiveness.

The old hymn that we sang earlier, ‘Jesus I come’ speaks to the desire of my heart and I pray yours as well.

Out of my bondage, sorrow and night.

Jesus, I come

Into thy freedom, gladness and light.

 Jesus I come.

Out of my sickness into thy health

Out of my want and into your wealth.

Out of my sin and into thyself.

Jesus I come… I come.