Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

SERMON: 2006-10-21--sm0603--blessed-are-those-who-mourn SOURCE DURATION: 00:37:41.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: The material from segment [0] through [31] constitutes the main sermon exposition and application regarding grief and communion preparation. The subsequent segments are primarily music or belong to a different part of the service. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:32:52.500-00:37:39.120 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- All of us, I'm sure, were shocked and saddened this past week with the news of still another school shooting, this time in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, where 10 young Amish schoolgirls were shot. Five have died, were buried in recent days. A sixth is still on life support, not expected to live, and the other four continue in hospital seriously and critically wounded. What makes this particular episode particularly disturbing, I think, is that the shooter, a man by the name of Charles Carl Roberts, not only meticulously planned this shooting for at least a week, we know, but he was also a professing Christian. Did you know that? He was a churchgoer. In fact, when the shooting took place, his wife was at her church leading a prayer meeting. Now, I don't know what you do with this, but when I hear a story like this, and then the story a couple of days earlier of that overpass in Laval, Quebec, collapsing, killing five people in two separate cars, when I hear those kinds of stories, I say to myself, "Where do you go with all that pain and grief? What do you do with it? How can anything redemptive ever come out of situations like that?" And that, in part, is what we want to try to address this morning as we prepare for the celebration of Communion as we look at Beatitude number two in Matthew 5, verse 4. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Now, to mourn, as you know, is to feel or express sorrow or grief over loss or misfortune. And if we're to understand what it is that Jesus is getting at here when he talks about mourning and about being comforted in our mourning, I find it very helpful to understand that in Scripture, there are at least three kinds of grieving. And not all grieving is redemptive in nature. In other words, not every grief is ultimately going to be comforted. There is what we could call a natural grieving. That's the pain or the sorrow we experience when we lose a loved person, place, or thing. It's what parents feel when they bury their child. It's what a husband or a wife feels when a significant relationship falls apart, whether by death, divorce, or some other tragedy. It's what a child feels when a close relationship is severed or his favorite puppy dies. Grief and pain are a part of living in a fallen world. Nobody will ever escape it entirely. And while it's true that sometimes God uses natural grieving to bring us to our knees, to teach us biblical wisdom, to show us the frailty of life, and thus it can have a spiritual benefit, it is equally true that not all natural grieving automatically produces any benefit. There are many people who die in their sorrow and they never experience significant comfort. There is a natural grieving not only, but there is also a sinful grieving. And sinful grieving is the pain or the sorrow that we experience when our desires are not met or our plans are thwarted. Sinful grieving is what your child does when it wails its head off because it's not getting its way. Sinful grieving is what you and I do when we rail against God and rail against other people because our hopes and dreams collapse and our desires are thwarted. And sinful grieving is what all of us do outside of the grace of Jesus. When our sins and our transgressions overtake us, life spirals down and we are overcome with the sadness of a life that is broken. And again, while God can redeem that, and while sometimes the consequences of our sins bring us to our knees and cause us to turn to Jesus, truth of the matter is that just as often people get bitter rather than better. The apostle Paul says that worldly grief produces death. So there's a natural grieving, there is a sinful grieving. And then there is what we could call a spiritual grieving. And this is the pain and the sorrow we feel when it dawns on us that our sins not only offend and hurt Almighty God, but they also hurt and offend the significant people in our lives. Sinful grieving, or rather spiritual grieving, is what David does when he cries out in Psalm 51 after his adultery with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband Uriah. 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 so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Spiritual grieving is what the publican does in the temple when he beats his chest and hangs his head and cries out, be merciful to me, oh God, a sinner. Spiritual grieving is what the prodigal son does in the gospel according to Luke chapter 15. When at long last he returns to his father when he cries out, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. And spiritual grieving is what the crowd does on the day of Pentecost when it finally dawns on him that this Jesus whom they have crucified, God the Father has exalted at his right hand and given the name that is above every name. And the Bible says they were cut to the heart and they said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what shall we do? And it's this kind of grieving, this awareness of sin and the problems that it causes relationally between God and ourselves and each other that Jesus is talking about here in the Sermon on the Mount when he says, blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. It is in our ability to face our sin and our shortcomings and own it that paradoxically we discover not only God's forgiveness, but God's comforting presence. And in that way, of course, beatitude number two builds on beatitude number one, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. How do we get into the kingdom? By the realization of being poor in spirit, not by all the clever things I know, not by all the clever doctrines that I can recapitulate, not by knowing all the right doctrine or living the right kind of life, but by that heartfelt realization that who I am and what I have to offer falls far short of the glory of God and I am so desperately dependent for my salvation on Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. As I pointed out for that reason, when the Holy Spirit begins to work in your life and in my life, he brings us to an awareness of our sin. And as we become aware of our sin and as we see how far short we fall of that which God stands for, I discover ironically the comforting presence of God's Holy Spirit. See, the world doesn't understand this. The world doesn't like to hear about sin. The world doesn't like to hear about its failure. And even in the church sometimes, we try to push away those negative emotions. Tell me that I'm okay. Don't rub my nose in my failure. But scripture says it is those who mourn for their sin. That is to say, who grieve over their failure, who grieve because they're not what God is calling them to be, who grieve because they have failed each other, who owned the fact that they are a hopeless case outside of and apart from Jesus. They are the ones who experience the comfort of God. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. What does it mean to be comforted? It means that God draws near. He takes note of our grief. He wipes away our tears. He kisses us better. He holds us in his arms. He holds us in his lap. He tells us that he still loves us in spite of the mess that we have made of our lives and the failures that we not only commit, but are. And he lets us know in a whole new way what it is to live by the grace of God. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Now, let me try to flesh that out a little bit, because it's my experience that this comfort that God provides for us as we own our sin and as we own our failures is experienced by you and me, typically, in three areas of our lives. Let me try to spell those out in the time that remains. Number one, we experience the comfort, particularly at the time of our Christian conversion. Again, how does a person become a Christian? Not by learning to jump through all the right loops, not by learning how to echo all the right confessions. We become a Christian when God has shown us how far short we fall and how much I need Jesus. And whether this happens through a crisis experience or a gradual dawning of truth in my heart, the fact remains that as I embrace what God says is true of me in Adam, that is to say, I am a sinner, I have fallen short of the glory of God, and I need the grace of Jesus. It is precisely at that point when I most own my hopelessness, when I have exhausted every other avenue to try to be better, that God comes along by His word and through His Spirit, and He breathes life into me, and I discover paradoxically His comforting presence as He not only forgives me, but accepts me in Christ, just as I am. John was talking earlier about that video presentation that we're going to be starting next Sunday night, featuring Bill Hybels and his presentation on Just Walk Across the Room. This is the book that he uses for that. And in part of the introduction, he tells a little bit about his own conversion. And he tells this story in the context of sailing on Lake Michigan, and feeling the prompting of the Holy Spirit to revisit the place in the Bible camp where he first gave his life to Jesus. Let me read you a couple of paragraphs of his story. Here's what he says. "By age 17, I had already packed a lot of living into life. "Even then, I knew enough to recognize "that the accumulation of more toys, "the desperate search for approval, "and the ceaseless striving for success "just weren't cutting it. "My spiritual experience that night at camp "wasn't prompted by someone delivering a stirring message. "Or by someone asking me three deep questions. "I met Christ because while walking "from a mess hall gathering back to my cabin one night, "I was suddenly penetrated by a single verse of scripture "that I had memorized as a child. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, "but according to God's mercy, he saved us. "Just after nine o'clock that night, "the words I'd read so many times before "hit me in a fresh way. "Could it really be true that God cared enough about me "that he would make provision to save even me? "For the first time in my young life, "I faced my biggest doubt head on. "There is no way I could matter so much to God "that he would make salvation available to me "as a gift free of charge. "To that point, everything about my existence "could be summed up in two words, earn it. "My father had built into me a monstrous work ethic "and had reinforced my earned mantra daily. "You earn every penny you make. "You earn your way into the starting line up. "You earn good grades. "You earn it all. "There is no free lunch. "I have been trying my entire life to impress God, "I remember thinking. "I've poured all my effort into proudly presenting "my good ideas to him, my righteousness, "my hard work, my striving. "But I felt skeptical all the while, "would it ever be enough. "Truthfully, I wondered if I would ever reach God's quota "and be found acceptable by him. "On that night in eastern Wisconsin, "the Holy Spirit imparted to me "whatever presence of mind I needed "to understand Titus 3.5, that Bible passage "I quoted earlier, and I met Jesus in an authentic way. "I remember throwing open the doors of my heart to him "and what at that time felt like some sort "of amazing grace attack." He says, "I felt the impact of my salvation "and I experienced it physically." Jesus says, "Blessed are those who mourn, "for they shall be comforted." Profound implications, because not infrequently, even in the church, when we feel bad over our sins or we meet somebody else who feels bad over their sins, the first thing we do is we try to make them feel better. But feeling better is a bottomless pit. Somebody who is convicted of sin ought to be convicted of sin. And when we're convicted of sin, the antidote to the conviction of sin is not to be told, "Oh, you're okay." Now, the antidote to that is the blood of Jesus. And so for ourselves and for each other, we need to understand the biblical truth. Blessed are those who mourn. Mourning over your sin is not the worst thing that you could do, 'cause it'll drive you to Jesus, who's the only one who can take care of you. And to heal lightly the sins of my people was one of the characteristics of the false prophets in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. So there's Christian conversion, and then, of course, there's the whole business of living the Christian life. It would be wonderful if after I came to Christ, all awareness of sin would be gone and I could be happy all the day long. And there are some Christians who picture the Christian life that way. But it's not what scripture teaches. Because just because I have come to Christ and my sins have been forgiven, that doesn't mean that all areas of my life, as we've often talked about here, are now automatically lining up with God. As a matter of fact, most of us will not have known what is the conviction of sin until after we came to Jesus. Isn't that true? We come to Jesus and we know that we've got some baggage that we need to get rid of. We have no idea of how deeply our depravity runs. The Holy Spirit comes to live in us. We start reading the word. We start being exposed to it. We start seeing models of Christian living. And all of a sudden, by the word and through the Holy Spirit, he begins to speak to me. And he says, "You thought that was bad in you. "Let me show you what is really bad in you." And he is now no longer convicting me just of a couple of bad things that I do out here. He's starting to show me the places in my heart where I am falling short of the glory of God. And he is showing me how perfectly incapable I am of measuring up to the standards that God has set before me. And I begin to grieve because of my sin and because of my failure. And again, the temptation and the tendency, even in the church, is to lightly heal the wounds of my people. And we tell ourselves and we tell one another, "Ah, you're not so bad." But telling each other we're not so bad doesn't make the pain go away. Because the convicting power of the Holy Spirit is always there to underscore the brokenness of my life and the places where I am falling short. And when the Holy Spirit convicts me that way, I can do one of two things. I can just try to push it off, try to outrun it, discovering that God's always on my case and I'll never know his comfort. Or I can just come to him as I am. And I can say, "You know, Lord, "I'm not the husband that I ought to be. "I have a temper, I am thoughtless, I am impatient. "I'm not the wife that I ought to be. "I'm not the churchgoer that I ought to be. "I'm not, you know, I'm but a pale and poor reflection "of everything that you are asking of me "because there are things in me. "I don't even know what they are. "I can't even fight them myself. "I don't understand how I'm ever going "to get on top of that. "But oh God, I'm sorry because I know "that my sin hurts my husband, it hurts my wife, "it hurts my children, it hurts my co-workers, "it dishonors your name. "Oh God, what a wretched man I am," in the words of the Apostle Paul. And it's in the middle of that kind of mourning, that kind of owning of our sin, that God comes along with his amazing comfort. Because what happens when I own my stuff? God says, well, at least we're on the same plane now. You understand what my issues are with you and you understand how Jesus Christ is the full provision so that your sin can be dealt with and your life can be transformed. And God comforts us because by the power of the Holy Spirit shows us that he still loves us. That in spite of all our messing up, we are still his kids and that he's going to work in us from glory to glory and one day he is going to present us before the presence of his glory with rejoicing without any spot or wrinkle or blemish. There isn't a one of us. No matter how badly we're put together or what passions drive us or what sins continue to hold us in bondage, but through faith in Jesus, we will one day be completely and totally transformed. Now that is comfort that lasts. I'll never forget when as a youth, there was a particular sin that I was struggling with before God, the Holy Spirit convicting me of it. Didn't matter what I did or how I try to do it, couldn't get rid of it until one day, God in his grace touched my life. And I remember being so incredibly awestruck at his power to touch and to transform and to change. That would later in the song of response that our music group is going to do, you're gonna catch a glimpse of Steve's baptism at the river. And those of you that know Steve and Nicole's story will know what an amazing demonstration of God's grace their life has been. Lived together for 15 years, afraid to commit a relationship that began to fall apart until they met up with Jesus. And Jesus not only led them into marriage, but has now blessed them. The brand new baby girl is a testimony of God's amazing grace. He blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. So God comforts us in our Christian conversion. He comforts us to live in a Christian life. And then he comforts us as we bear each other's pain and grief. This mourning of which Jesus speaks is not only a mourning of our own sin and shortcomings, it is also a mourning of the sin, the brokenness, and the shortcoming of the world all around us. There was nobody more perfect than Jesus. And yet the Bible describes him as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. And a lot of us think that Jesus experienced suffering and pain, particularly in the latter part of his life as he went through dark Gethsemane and then faced the agony of the cross. And truly, that was pain beyond understanding and beyond comprehension, but I think his pain began long before that. Because here is the darling of heaven, as we sang earlier this morning. The perfect son of God came out of heaven where God is honored above all, where the will of God is done by every creature, and God is central to everything. Sin has no foothold, and he gets born into this world. And he rubbed shoulders with the likes of you and me and faces a world of pain and tragedy. Can you even begin to imagine what that would have felt like for the Lord Jesus? Martin Lloyd-Jones, in his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, makes the observation that while the gospels tell us many emotions of Jesus, they never tell us that Jesus laughed. Now, you can't argue from the argument of silence in scripture, but you can well imagine how much of his life was a burden, because he comes to his own people and his own people don't want to receive him. He gathers a select group of disciples around him, but when push comes to shove, they turn their backs on him, and of course, ultimately, he experiences the abandonment of God the Father himself. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, who for the joy that was said before him endured the cross, and today is seated at the right hand of God in glory. And the message of scripture is that when, by faith, we are joined to Jesus, and Jesus comes to live in us, we begin to experience the pain that is in the world in proportion to the degree to which we come alive. People don't understand that always. The more you come alive in Christ, and the more you can experience the positive emotions of God's presence, the more also you feel other people's pain, and part of mourning is sharing in the grief that is in the world. Isn't that your experience? Doesn't your heart wrench within you when you hear the news of that shooting that we talked about earlier? 10 young girls lined up at a blackboard, ready to be raped and shot. When you hear the story of two cars sitting under an overpass, and the overpass comes crashing down, I don't know if you saw any pictures in the news about one of those cars, but it was crushed to this high. That car had three people in it. Never knew what hit them. And those are but examples of suffering and pain. Doesn't your heart burn when you have invested time and effort in a spouse or in a child, and willingly and rebelliously they walk away from you, and they don't care about how they cut your heart? Or you hear the stories in the news of God being dishonored and sin being celebrated. And the world does everything it can to keep the pain away. They drink, and they dope, and they do whatever they need to do in order to protect their own comfort zone. But Jesus says you're blessed when you mourn. You know why? Because it is in mourning that you're going to be comforted. How? Well, first of all, because as you embrace the pain, there are those moments when God breaks through and brings about redemption. How many stories haven't you heard? How many stories haven't we shared together? Where God breaks through at the last moment, and you get a glimpse of God's love in God's power because he has grabbed hold of us, and he has made a transformation. Those are the things that give us hope that in the Lord, our labors are not in vain. Though we sow in tears, we will come reaping with shouts of joy. And God knows to put enough oases in the wilderness to help us to keep on moving towards the promised land. And then, of course, there is the promise of scripture. That one day when Jesus comes again, every wrong is going to be righted. Every tear is going to be wiped away, and there will no longer be any crying or mourning nor pain anymore. That's why we can live with our hearts wide open. That's why we don't have to retreat into places of protection and places of pain, and that's why we don't give in to hopelessness because no matter how dark the world gets, no matter how victorious evil seems to be, the victory has already been won by the person of Jesus Christ. And he reigns at the right hand until every enemy will be made a footstool for his feet. And on that day, I'll tell you, those of us that have fought the battle, those of us that have shared in the sufferings of Christ, and have agonized with his grief over a broken and a wounded world, I'll tell you, you ain't never see no party but that day, because we're gonna shout with joy at Satan's destruction and the fact that God is making all things new. Blessed are those who mourn, for as surely as God is God, they shall be comforted. And that's what communion's about, because as we draw near to Jesus, the man of sorrows acquainted with grief, who took our place so that we might share in his benefits, he draws near to us by the power of his Holy Spirit. And it may well be that you're here this morning, and the Holy Spirit convicts you. You know you're not the man, the woman that you ought to be. You come to church, but you're just going through the motions because you know that whatever it is that God is inviting you to in the end, you just don't have what it takes to get there, and you don't know how to get there, and so you give up and you quit trying. But Jesus says it's not in trying harder that we're going to know his presence and his comfort. It's in coming to him as we are, with our brokenness and with our sin and with all of our shortcoming, because it's in the middle of all that mourning. It's in the middle of facing the pain that we cause him and the pain that we cause each other, and taking full responsibility for it. That we discover Jesus comes to us in his own way, and he greets us, and he provides a comfort that nobody can take away. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:32:52.500; remove through 00:37:41.000] (gentle guitar music) ♪ To the river ♪ ♪ I am going ♪ ♪ Bringing sins I cannot bear ♪ ♪ Come and cleanse me ♪ ♪ Come forgive me ♪ ♪ Lord, I need to meet you there ♪ ♪ In these waters ♪ ♪ Healing mercy ♪ ♪ Flows with freedom from despair ♪ ♪ I am going ♪ ♪ To that river ♪ ♪ Lord, I need to meet you there ♪ ♪ Precious Jesus ♪ ♪ I am ready ♪ ♪ To surrender ♪ ♪ Every care ♪ ♪ Take my hand now ♪ ♪ Lead me closer ♪ ♪ Lord, I need to meet you there ♪ ♪ To the river ♪ ♪ I am going ♪ ♪ Bringing sins I cannot bear ♪ ♪ Come and cleanse me ♪ ♪ Come forgive me ♪ ♪ Lord, I need to meet you there ♪ ♪ In these waters ♪ ♪ Healing mercy ♪ ♪ Flows with freedom from despair ♪ ♪ I am going ♪ ♪ To that river ♪ ♪ Lord, I need to meet you there ♪ ♪ Precious Jesus ♪ ♪ I am ready ♪ ♪ To surrender ♪ ♪ Every care ♪ ♪ Take my hand now ♪ ♪ Lead me closer ♪ ♪ Lord, I need to meet you there ♪ ♪ Come and join us ♪ ♪ In the river ♪ ♪ Come find life ♪ ♪ Beyond compare ♪ ♪ He is calling ♪ ♪ He is waiting ♪ ♪ Jesus longs ♪ ♪ To meet you there ♪ ♪ He is calling ♪ ♪ He is waiting ♪ ♪ Jesus longs ♪ ♪ To meet you there ♪ ♪ Precious Jesus ♪ ♪ I am ready ♪ ♪ To surrender ♪ ♪ Every care ♪ ♪ Take my hand now ♪ ♪ Lead me closer ♪ ♪ Lord, I need to meet you there ♪ ♪ Take my hand now ♪ ♪ Lead me closer ♪ ♪ Lord, I need to meet you there ♪ (gentle piano music) [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:37:41.000; resume after this marked segment]