Blessed are the Meek :: Matthew 5:5

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The meek set aside their power and strength to patiently wait upon the Lord!

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Good morning So good to be with you all this morning if you would please open your
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Bibles to Matthew chapter 5 We are doing a sermon series called upside down Where we're looking at the beatitudes where our
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Lord is talking about what true Blessed happiness with God looks like and it is totally counter to the things of this world
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What Jesus is saying is totally upside down for how we typically think
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So as we begin to unpack the beatitudes I want us to have this in mind that the beatitudes are laying the foundation
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To the rest of our Lord's discourse through the sermon on the mount So with that being said
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I'd like for us to look at the beatitudes through this series each and every week Holistically, I want us to see how exactly one beatitude fits
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With all the other ones so with that being said let's start in verse 3 of Matthew chapter 5
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Jesus said Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
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Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth
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Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied
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Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see
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God Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
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Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account
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Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who are before you
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Let's go to our Lord and prayer once again this morning Heavenly Father, thank you so much for Your grace and your mercy that you continue to pour out each and every day into our lives
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God We praise you for your holiness Lord this morning I pray that you would send your spirit to illuminate our hearts and mind and to give us wisdom from your word
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God, please give us ears to hear that your saints may be edified by the preaching of your word
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We pray these things in your name Jesus. Amen So we just read through the entire
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B attitudes, but this morning I want us to focus on verse 5 This is the third
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B attitude where we're going to be talking about meekness Jesus says blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth
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So that word meek I think there's a lot of misconceptions attached to it Which is no surprise at this point because everything we're talking about is upside down When the world tries to import their definitions and understandings meekness can be translated as gentle and humble, but the world sees meekness as Weakness they see someone who is meek is someone who is easily imposed upon and that is
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Nowhere, what our Lord is talking about here biblical meekness. You may make a note of this is supreme self -control
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This type of gentleness in one's life is a work of the Spirit So we look at the fruit of the
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Spirit that is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and Self -control what
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I love about the fruit of the Spirit is the fruit is singular This list we're talking about different aspects of this singular fruit that the
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Spirit produces And so this is a package deal we can look at these different aspects to help qualify and explain
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One another and so in the list of the fruit of the Spirit the last two are gentleness and self -control
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These complement one another and so as I was studying this word meek or Gentle, I found that it was has been used to describe a young male horse one that has a net a wild Spirit and needs a trainer to break them down and make them useful for work
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The young horse is not naturally mild or soft. This is something that must be worked on over time
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There's a process and I think that is a lot like who we are and what
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God has done in our life We are naturally born sinners, and we want to live life the way we want to in opposition to God But God by his grace he takes a hold of our wills and he transforms it
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So then he can use us for the work of his kingdom Those who are meek do not assert themselves over others in order to further their own agendas in their own power
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But rather they wait patiently patiently upon the Lord Meekness means to have power put under control and as I look through the
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Old and New Testament I find many men and women that are great examples of People who are humble who are meek but all of these are pointing ultimately in the example of Jesus Christ Think about it.
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There is no greater example of power put under control Jesus Christ is the second person of the
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Trinity who has eternally been Omnipotent all -powerful and then what did
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Jesus do he controlled that power to such a point that he? Humbled himself by taking on human flesh and dwelt among sinful people
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Bearing their sin on the cross the Apostle Paul says this in Philippians 2 He says have this in mind among yourselves
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Which is yours in Jesus Christ who though? He was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form and Humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on the cross
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Jesus is Infinite in his power and yet he lovingly laid down his life for sinful man
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And I believe it's this type of meekness and humility that Jesus modeled for us showing us what it means to Perfectly submit himself to the
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Father's will Jesus humbled himself by becoming Obedient even to the point of death no matter
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How bad the persecution was no matter how bad the suffering that was caused upon him by the
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Jews and the Romans? Jesus said in John 6 for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will
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But of the will of him who sent me this is a wonderful example of meekness
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We are called to submit ourselves to the will of God in our lives and to deny ourselves
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And so we look to Jesus Christ and as we examine the Beatitudes We must understand that in order to live this blessed life
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That means that we are going to be conformed more and more into the image of Christ himself
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The Beatitudes are a great description of the perfect life of Christ And so followers of Christ are going to desire to walk in the light as he is in the light and So when we think about Jesus is great condescension this ultimate controlling of power
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I believe the application for Christians Paul brings that also in Philippians 2
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He says complete my joy and be of the same mind having the same love being in full accord with one mind do nothing of selfish
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Ambition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves
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Let each of you not only look to his own interest, but also to the interest of others
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When we understand the incredible sacrifice the grace and mercy of God on our behalf
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Then we realize that we have no use for pride and selfish and ambition
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Jesus once again being our perfect example the night before his crucifix crucifixion
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He washed the feet of his disciples. This was something done typically by the lowliest of servant
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Jesus says a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you you also are to love one another
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By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another
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Hope you are seeing the application if we have the mind of Christ if we think about his ultimate example of Humility and meekness then we can rest in him in every turn and point of life
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We no longer have to be focused solely on our own interests rather We can be motivated to have the the same
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Fellow believers and a mine with fellow believers and to put their interests before our own
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Blessed are the meek and so that's a major point this morning that meekness is
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Controlled power and we see this ultimate example in Jesus Christ And so at this point
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I want to share with you it is so staggering to me that the Jews of old They completely missed this element of the gospel and of the coming of the
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Messiah They were looking for a conquering King not a meek suffering
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Servant and so as I was studying this word meek I found that it's only mentioned four times in the
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New Testament and one of those times comes from Matthew chapter 21 verse 5 and this is actually pointing back to fulfilled prophecy that Jesus Fulfilled and it comes from Zechariah chapter 9 verse 9 and so Matthew's account of this verse
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Says say to the daughter of Zion behold your King is coming Who you humble or meek it's the same
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Greek word there and Mounted on a donkey a cult the foal of a beast of burden now
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This is a wonderful scripture that Jesus once again fulfilled at his triumphal entry When he came into Jerusalem, he was signaling that he is the long -awaited for Messiah Now Matthew's account of this verse is kind of a shorthand
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Summary, so when we look back to Zechariah 9 9 I want to point out something a little bit fuller here that perfectly matches the person and work of Christ Zechariah 9 9 look where it says behold your
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King is coming to you righteous and having Salvation as he humbled and mounted on a donkey
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As we begin to study the Gospels we see that Jesus Christ He is the only one who is righteous because he is
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God in the flesh and he accomplished Salvation by dying on the cross and he did this as first coming in meekness
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Now this prophecy in Zechariah 9 9 seems to have been overlooked by the
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Jews by what comes next in verse 10 Let me read that for you We read
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I will cut off the chariot of Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem And the battle bow shall be cut off and he shall speak peace to the nations
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His rule shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth
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Now the popular Jewish understanding of the Messiah was once again that he would come in as a
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Conquering King King riding on a war horse, and he is going to establish his rule worldwide and So the
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Jews rejected Jesus because he failed in their eyes They expected
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Messiah to deliver them from the Roman bondage and to destroy all evil Once again, the
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Jews wanted a conquering King not a meek suffering servant so the reality is
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Zechariah 9 9 says that this Messianic King will come in righteousness and salvation in meekness riding on a donkey this refers to the first coming of Messiah in Verse 10 says that that same
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Messianic King will come on a war horse in Glorious victory to rule and reign guess what?
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This is the second coming of Christ There are so many
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Hebrew scriptures that continue to perplex the Jewish nation as a whole
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One of my favorite passages and all the scripture comes out of Isaiah chapter 53 this prophesied about the coming
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Messiah who would come to suffer being pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities the suffering servant could not possibly be referring to the nation of Israel because they are a
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Sinful people and they cannot die in a tome for the sins of other people. Why do I bring that up?
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Well the Jewish people they are perplexed by this passage and so they say the suffering servant are
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God's people the Jews that is Impossible and thank the Lord the New Testament even interprets that passage and tells us that that in fact is
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Jesus Christ He fulfills that perfectly Jesus's hands and feet were pierced on the cross as he bore the wrath of God on the behalf of the sins of his people
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Another passage that continues to baffle the Jews is Psalm 22
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Where King David was pointing forward to the coming Messiah, and he says this evildoers
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Encircle me they have pierced my hands and my feet I count all my bones and they stare and gloat over me
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They divide my garments among them for my clothing they cast lots
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Now that we should have in mind everything that pertains to Jesus as he suffered and died on the cross he fulfilled that and lastly
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Zechariah chapter 12 verse 10 Prophesied that it would be the nation of Israel.
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They would be the ones to pierce their long -awaited King Zechariah 12 10 says and I Yahweh will pour out on the house of David and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and Pleased for mercy so that when they look on me on him whom they have pierced
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They shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child the
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Jews missed the meek character of our Lord and they played a huge part in crucifying
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God's one and only son and Now that seems pretty Bleak, but in God's amazing sovereignty.
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He used this to bring about redemption and salvation for all of humanity
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So I'd like to return back to our main text this morning look with me at Matthew 5 verse 5
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Our Lord's beatitude once again says blessed are the meek for they shall
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Inherit the earth I'd like to now begin to focus on the second half of this beatitude because it seems like all the beatitudes
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Talk about an effect that flows from the transformed life of the child of God Think about this happy are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
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This means that those who acknowledge their sinfulness before God are blessed because this provides the framework for salvation
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Happy are those who mourn for they shall be Comforted those same people who acknowledge their sin and are completely devastated over it they will be comforted by the
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Holy Spirit in the promises of God of Salvation they also are comforted by the
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Saints and So here we read the meek they are promised to inherit the earth
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What does that mean? Well, I'm excited to tell you a little bit that this has a lot to do with eschatology
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This has a lot to do with the study of the end times and we're going to talk about a few of those things this morning
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But before we do I want to invite you to turn with me to Psalm Chapter 37 as it turns out
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Jesus and this beatitude He is actually quoting from Psalm 37 verse 11
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But I want us to examine the verses leading up to verse 11 This will give us more insight to what
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Jesus means when he talks about the meek and then I want us to see the promise That is attached to that So turn with me to Psalm chapter 37.
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This is a wisdom psalm by King David He says fret not yourselves
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Because of evildoers be not envious of wrongdoers For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb
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Trust in the Lord and do good dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness
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Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart Commit your way to the
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Lord trust in him and he will act He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noon day
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Let's pause right there for a moment here in King David's wisdom psalm He is addressing the age -old question of why do the ungodly prosper while godly people?
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painfully struggle through life He begins this psalm by saying fret not some translations say do not get upset because of evildoers
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Do not be envious or jealous of wrongdoers. I want you to think about how we can relate so Much and with what
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King David is saying in our life We're going to see men and women openly express their disdain for God and yet they may have really nice material things
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I Even think about in the ministry world I see so -called pastors whose ministries are devoid of truth and Conviction of sin and their ministries are built on selfish ambition and pragmatism and yet They may have these large buildings with thousands and thousands of members and they may have really large financial budgets
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I Think it is so tempting for God's people to become jealous of the ungodly and their apparent lifestyle of comfort and prosperity
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We must remember that God gives good gifts to unbelievers in spite of who they are
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God gives good gifts because he is gracious and he is loving and Later in the
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Sermon on the Mount Jesus says that the father he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust
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So in verse 2 King David He reminds us that the ungodly for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb
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David is telling us that these ungodly their temporary success will not last it will all fade away and So it is the
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Lord. He will make the distinction between the two groups who the godly are and who the ungodly are
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He will make that distinction clear in his own time and so the faithful must patiently wait on him
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So in verse verses 3 4 & 5. I want you to see these parallel Statements that are meant to encourage the people of God trust in the
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Lord do good Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart
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Commit your way to the Lord trust in him and he will act Those who are meek
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Exercise self -control they are focused on the Lord almost like they have blinders on Now that seems a little bit contradictory.
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What do I mean by the meek have blinders on? Well when I was really young I would go up to my grandpa's farm had a blast
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This is my home away from home Occasionally we would go on a trail ride where he would get his big old wagon and he would get his horses
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And we'd have a really good time. And so I noticed that he would put what's called blinders on his horses
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These are two little flaps that are attached to the horse's bridle and they go right on each side of the horse's eyes
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The purpose of these blinders forced the horse to look only forward in one direction
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The blinders would keep the horse on track These blinders would reduce the chance of the horse being spooked
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Spooked and making a run for it while they're still attached to the wagon And so I believe the meek are almost like the horses here with blinders on the meek
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Do not get distracted from all the things that are happening to their left and to their right in the world
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The meek have their eyes fixed on God and commit their way to him
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So look with me now verses 7 and 8 here in Psalm 37 David says be still before the
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Lord and wait patiently for him fret Not yourselves over the one who prospers in his way over the man who carries out evil devices
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Refrain from anger and forsake wrath fret not yourself. It tends only to evil
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I love what David says there because I think it's so easy for us to be
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Tempted to anger when we see that that we when we see people that openly hate
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God and they prosper It almost seems unfair to us, doesn't it?
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And when we had this mindset of that we deserve something Then I think anger will build up over time and that anger will turn into bitterness
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This will not only rob us of our joy, but this angry bitterness will cause us to sin
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I'm reminded of another psalmist by the name of Asaph He wrote about his experience about waiting upon the
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Lord as he watched all of these ungodly pagans prosper around him
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His famous psalm comes from Psalm 73 and Asaph says as for me my feet had almost stumbled my steps nearly slipped for I was
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Envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked Now Asaph was a godly man
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He spent most of his life trying to honor and please the Lord and he was not wealthy
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And I think like us he had experienced some difficulties With what was all going around him and he was beginning to question the injustice of it all he watched evil people around him living by their own rules and Enjoying all the wealth and the pleasures that the world has to offer
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And so what does Asaph do like many of us he begins to complain?
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As Asaph complains by saying they have no struggles their bodies are healthy and strong They are free from the burdens common to man and they are not plagued by human sickness
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What's interesting about Asaph is he was a choir director. That's what he would typically do he would spend most of his days with the people of God and he began to be envious and Covet the things that the people around him had the ungodly and he began to question
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Why would God allow such a thing to happen? How often do we find ourselves relating to Asaph's experience?
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We dedicate our lives to serving God and then we witness the wicked and ungodly around us.
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They get new possessions luxurious homes Promotions beautiful clothes while we struggle financially.
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What is going on? I Believe Asaph and King David They are telling us that the meek have an eternal perspective on life
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And we are to trust in the providence of God He is the just judge of the earth and he will always do right
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This is the realization that Asaph had and he said when
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I tried to understand all of this It was oppressive to me until Until I entered the sanctuary of God then
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I understood their final destiny I Loved that Asaph entered the sanctuary of God and he began to see that there was no need for him to be
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Envious of the prosperity of the wicked why because their prosperity was an illusion
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Asaph began to comprehend that the ancient deceiver Satan had used lies to distract him from the reality of God Asaph upon entering the sanctuary.
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He realized that prosperity That the ungodly had was only fleeting It was a fleeting fulfillment like a pleasant dream that that pleases us for a little time
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But when we awake we realize it is not real I love what
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Asaph does next he rebukes himself for his own stupidity He admits that his senseless and arrogance or ignorance of the wicked and the perishing
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And being jealous of them. He realized that it was futile His thoughts then returned
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To his mind and understood that he had happiness in God and he realized how much more joy
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Fulfillment and true spiritual prosperity that he had in the Creator and so in psalm 37
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I believe that King David has this eternal perspective in mind and he rested in God's divine
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Justice God's divine justice transcends this temporal universe
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So look with me back at verse 9 King David says for the evil doer shall be cut off But those who wait for the
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Lord shall inherit the land and just a little while the wicked will be no more though You look carefully at his place.
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He will not be there verse 11 But the meek shall inherit the land or the earth same
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Hebrew word and delight themselves in abundant peace The verse 11 is where our
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Lord is quoting from this morning in our beatitude Jesus says blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth
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Now, I believe that Jesus had in mind all of the richness and the depth of psalm 37 those who exercise self -control and rest in the power of God rather than their own power
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It is the meek that are focused on committing their way to the Lord the meek
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Delight themselves in the Lord and he will give us the desires of our heart
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And so verse 11, this is where I really want to spend the rest of our time this morning Psalm 37 11 once again says but the meek shall inherit the land or the earth and delight themselves in abundant peace
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Now there are two things that I want us to acknowledge here. Number one There is an immediate context that pertains to the promises of Israel during the time of King David But number two and more importantly
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I think there are so many principles in this text that reached far beyond Israel in life as we know it now
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The people of Israel they were led by God to the promised land where they would have rest from their long
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Journeys, and they would have refuge from their current enemies but King David understood that this was merely a
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Temporal earthly rest because the people of Israel continued to have intense labors
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They faced attacks of ongoing enemies over time They combated sickness and disease and they experienced much death
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And so even though King David had been in the promised land for many years after Joshua had led them there
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King David wrote Psalm 95 about a heavenly rest that was still to come and So that's that's a key principle here
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I believe David and Jesus they are talking when they say that the meek shall inherit the earth
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They are not talking about the earth as we know it now They are talking about a future day when
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God restores all things and brings heaven down to earth all throughout
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Psalm 37 David is telling us that the meek look past this temporal world and look to God's eternal
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Justice verse 11 once again says but the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace
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So when I asked the question David, what does this abundant peace look like?
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I think he brings this out in a fuller way later in Psalm 37 Look with me at verses 27 through 29
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David says turn away from evil and do good So shall you dwell forever and the
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Lord loves justice He will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever
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But the children of the wicked shall be cut off the righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever
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I hope what you're hearing. Here's the principles of an eternal perspective that we keep talking about And I believe when he keeps talking about forever forever forever that the righteous will dwell upon it forever and Inherit the land he is talking about something that pertains much in the future and I believe this has to do with the study of the end times and So in the
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New Testament this I'll reference two books 2nd Peter chapter 3 in Revelation 21
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They talk about this new heaven and new earth. I believe this is Talking about our
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Lord's second coming where he will transform this present earth And it's because this present earth all of creation has been stained by the effects of sin and has been subjected to futility
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God will make a new heaven and a new earth at the return of Christ And I love thinking about it in these terms that God will bring heaven down to earth where we will dwell in the land forever
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Revelation 21 says then I saw a new heaven and a new earth For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more and I saw a holy city
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New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a loud voice on the throne saying
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Behold the dwelling place of God is with man He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their
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God He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more
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Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away
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That is so encouraging for the people of God. Amen The New heavens and the new earth are the eternal home that awaits every believer that is in Christ and it will be glorious Now think about our
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Lord's beatitude in a new way Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth
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We may not have everything that we want here on earth now
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But we will one day prosper for all eternity through Jesus Christ our
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Lord Whenever we are tempted to try the other road We should remember that all other broad roads lead to destruction
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But the narrow road before us through Jesus is the only road that leads to eternal life
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That should be our joy. That should be our comfort Courage you in your own time go look back to ASAP psalm psalm 73 he concludes this whom have
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I in heaven but you and the earth has nothing I Desire besides you those who are far from you will perish
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You destroy all who are unfaithful to you But as for me, it is good to be near God I have made the
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Sovereign Lord my refuge We do not need to Concern ourselves when good things seem to happen to bad people
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We only need to keep our focus on the Creator and enter into his presence every day through the portal of his
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Holy Word There we will find truth contentment spiritual riches and Everlasting joy,
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I'd like to begin to transition to the Lord's Supper Want to encourage you in light of the word this morning
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Examine your heart. Are you somebody that is wrestling with sin with coveting and being jealous of those that are around you?
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I simply want to encourage you to confess that to God trust in his providence He has you exactly where he wants you
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And So as you do that, I want to freely invite you if you are a baptized believer
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That is warring against sin in your life We understand that we will never be worthy to come and partake of the
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Lord's Supper but Jesus Christ is worthy and when we are warring against sin and confessing that to him and rallying the
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Saints to help war against sin then freely come and partake of the drink and of the bread that reminds us of everything that Jesus Christ has done and Then when we partake in the
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Lord's Supper this gives us but a mere foretaste of what is to come one day in glory but if you are somebody that as you are being
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Confronted with your sin and you are having trouble letting go and you are not
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Confessing that to the Lord and this there's a sin that you want to hang on to maybe you're not
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Reconciled to someone that has wronged you or you have wronged them and the scripture warns us that if someone has a unrepentant heart then they need to refrain from coming to the
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Lord's table, but Come talk to me come talk to pastor Nathan. We would love to come alongside you and war against this sin together
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So that being said we're about to partake in the Lord's Supper and we're going to do things a little bit differently this morning if you look in our little baskets, we have the we have the drink and The bread kind of packaged together
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So in your own time go go before the Lord and just know that that's how we're going to partake this morning