REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Matthew 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show “window pane” of the 8 beatitudes.
“The Beatitudes do not come at the end, they come at the beginning of the Sermon, and I do not hesitate to say that unless we are perfectly clear about them we should go no further.” (MLJ, 23)
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving).
INTRODUCTION:
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
1. A Truly Merciful Person Has First Received God’s Mercy in Christ
2. Being Merciful is Part of God’s Nature
3. God Shows Mercy to the Unmerciful
4. Mercy is of Such Importance that God Promises No Mercy to the Unmerciful
5. One Mark of a Merciful Person is a Willingness to Forgive
6. A Merciful Person is One Who Has Pity
7. The Merciful Person Will Receive Mercy
READ THE BEATITUDES:
3“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL
INTRODUCTION:
“A popular Roman philosopher called mercy ‘the disease of the soul.’ It was the supreme sign of weakness. Mercy was a sign that you did not have what it takes to be a real man and especially a real Roman. The Romans glorified manly courage, strict justice, firm discipline, and, above all absolute power. They looked down on mercy, because mercy to them was weakness, and weakness was despised above all other human limitations.”(MacArthur, 188).
QUESTION: Is it possible for a person who has experienced God’s forgiveness to be an unforgiving person? Can a person who has received God’s mercy be merciless? Can a born-again, redeemed Christian be unforgiving, without pity?
TABLE ACTIVITY: Complete the 7 statements about mercy on the outline I have distributed. Fill in the blanks enclosed in the box using the verses indicated. Start with the one that has your table number and then move on to the others.
I. IN THE BEATITUDES A MERCIFUL PERSON HAS FIRST RECEIVED MERCY E.G. EXPEREIENCED SALVATION.
1. All statements in the Sermon on the Mount must be taken in context. Martin Lloyd-Jones writes, “I would emphasize once more that it is idle to take any statement in the Sermon on the Mount at random, and try to understand it, without taking it in the context of the whole, and especially in the context of these descriptions which are here given of the character and disposition of the Christian man.” (MLJ, 95)
2. It would seem from this verse “Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.” that a person can earn the mercy of God.
QUESTION: How would we show that this verse does not mean that we can earn the mercy of salvation?
“Earned Mercy” is an oxymoron. An oxymoron is a combination of contradictory or incongruous words e.g. cruel kindness, tight slacks, silent scream, plastic glasses, living dead, pretty ugly, working vacation, work party, jumbo shrimp, tax return, Microsoft works.
If mercy is earned it is no longer mercy.
Salvation by earned mercy is impossible. Who has every shown enough mercy? If your mercy was perfect then you would be God. If God granted us salvation based on “earned mercy” no one would ever enter heaven.
“Earned Mercy” contradicts the clear teaching of the Scriptures: “For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith – – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” (Eph. 2:8).
In the first four beatitudes we receive the totality of God’s mercy and are filled with His righteousness (fourth Beatitude.)
There is a turning point at the fifth beatitude. The first four deal with our need, with the principles of the heart whereas the second four seem to focus on our attitude, disposition, relationship to others.
3. Only people who have realized their spiritual poverty, mourned over their sins, looked to God alone for the solution and hungered and thirsted after righteousness can become a biblically “merciful” person.
John Piper writes: “You get the power to show mercy from the real feeling in your heart that you owe everything you are and have to divine mercy.”
II. BEING MERCIFUL IS A PART OF GOD’S NATURE
“Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown merc.”
(Mt. 5:7).
READ TOGETHER: Ephesians 2:1-3 our sin and God’s wrath against sin. Ephesians 2:5-10 speaks of grace and salvation and eternal life. Verse four is the hinge: “But God …. God, who is rich in mercy ….”
Jesus speaks and pleads His blood.
He disarms the wrath of God.
Now my Father’s mercies move.
Justice lingers into love.
Jonah said while protesting God’s willingness to forgive the people of Nineveh, “I knew that thou are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” (Jonah 4:2).
Jesus, of course, was “mercy incarnate.”
QUESTION: List the acts of mercy attributed to Jesus during his three years of ministry.
Remember Jesus’ last words on the cross were words of mercy, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:24).
III. GOD SHOWS MERCY TO THE UNMERCIFUL
“Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.”
(Mt. 5:7).
“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy …. . The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly ….. . Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst (chief). … I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.” (I Tim. 1:12-16).
Depth of mercy, can there be
Mercy still reserved for me?
Can my God, His wrath forbear?
Me the chief of sinners spare?
God showers His mercy on all of humanity:
“He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and send rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Mt. 5:45).
In the light of the fact that we only deserve wrath, believers and unbelievers alike daily witness God’s mercy. That is why the statement, “I deserve to burn in hell! Anything less than that is a pretty good day!” Anything less than that is evidence of God’s mercy.
IV. MERCY IS OF SUCH IMPORTANCE TO GOD THAT HE PROMISES NO MERCY FOR THE UNMERCIFUL
“Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.”
(Mt. 5:7).
Being “merciless” capped the list of degrading sins that Paul mentions in Romans 1 when describing the lost ness of man:
“Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless (unmerciful).” (Romans 1:28-31).
Kris Husa and Bible Rap – Luke 18:21-35:
There once was a king wanting to settle accounts
With his servants and calculated all the amounts
These servants owed to the king in question
His demand for repayment was more than a suggestion
There was a servant who owed him quite a lot
But could he repay? No, he could not
So the master demanded all his things be sold
He and his family, his silver and gold
Then the servant fell to his knees
Hoping his master to appease
“Be patient with me. I know that I lack.
But if you wait, the debt I’ll pay back”.
The master took pity on him, you know
And cancelled his debt and let him go
But the servant then went out and found a fellow man
Who owed him just a little – grabbed him and began
To choke the fellow servant demanding he be paid.
But the servant fell to his knees trembling and afraid
“I will pay you back everything I owe.
Please just wait a while. Don’t take this as a ‘no'”
But the servant was impatient and threw him into jail.
But word got to the king of this horrid tale.
And called the wicked servant in before his throne
“I forgave, you should too, this should have known.
But now you have revealed your real attitude
And so I am removing all your latitude.”
He threw him into jail to pay back all he owed.
Being tortured day and night even after growing old.
This kind of treatment my Father will impart.
If you don’t forgive your brothers and do it from your heart
QUESTION: Will God ever withhold His mercy?
Parables are to teach a lesson, not establish doctrine. They are stories. But the application is not a story: “This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.” (Mt. 18:35).
Conclusion: A person who is a true Christian must be a forgiving person. Giving forgiveness is a true mark of a Christian.
“Some words of qualification are in order here. The warning is not for those who find that bitterness and hatred recur even though they have forgiven the offender. The fact that you have forgiven and continue to forgives is a sign of grace, despite the ambivalences and imperfections of your forgiveness. The warning is for those who have no desire to forgive. Their souls are in danger” (Hughes, 48).
V. ONE MARK OF A MERCIFUL PERSON IS A WILLINGNESS TO FORGIVE
“Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.”
(Mt. 5:7).
What does a “merciful” person look like? Obviously a “merciful” person is a forgiving person.
Jesus was “mercy incarnate” and His last words were, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
“If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you.” (Matthew 6:14). This is not because we can merit mercy by mercy or forgiveness by forgiveness, but because we cannot receive the mercy and forgiveness of God unless we repent, and we cannot claim to have repented of our sins if we are unmerciful towards the sins of others. Nothing moves us to forgive like the wondering knowledge that we have ourselves been forgiven. Nothing proves more clearly that we have been forgiven than our own readiness to forgive. To forgive and to be forgiven, to show mercy and to receive mercy: these belong indissolubly together” (Stott, 47-48).
“But if some of those to whom this admonition was addressed (and it is addressed to all Christians at all times) should persist in an unforgiving attitude towards others, could they even so enjoy the assurance of God’s forgiveness? If Jesus’ teaching means what it says, they could not” (FF Bruce, Hard Sayings of Jesus, 79).
The whole matter of forgiveness, showing mercy is emphasized again and again in the Sermon on the Mount. “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” (Mt. 5:23-24).
ILL: Classic illustration of forgiveness, Corrie Ten Boom’s story of forgiving the German guard while she was ministering in a church service in Munich. See Hughes, pg. 50.
VI. A MERCIFUL PERSON IS ONE WHO SHOWS PITY
“Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.”
(Mt. 5:7).
The basic idea for mercy in the Greek is to give help to the wretched, to relieve the miserable. Mercy relates to misery. A synonym for mercy is compassion.
The best example of “mercy” in the Gospels is the story of the Good Samaritan.
READ THE PARABLE (Luke 10:30-37) & ASK THE QUESTION: What are the four dimensions of mercy in this parable?
Mercy sees distress …. He saw the man.
Mercy responds to distress … he had compassion on him.
Mercy responds with practical helps … he bound up his wounds.
Mercy is color-blind, unbiased …A Samaritan helping a Jew
The “Good Samaritan” was “Rich in Mercy.” (The one who had mercy on him – Lk. 10:37).
ILL: We must never imagine that we are merciful because we feel compassionate toward someone in distress. Mercy means active goodwill. This was well understood by the nineteenth-century preacher who happened across a friend whose horse had just been accidentally killed. While a crown of onlookers expressed empty words of sympathy, the preacher stepped forward and said to the loudest sympathizer, “I am sorry 5 pounds ($25). How much are you sorry? And then he passed the hat. (Hughes, 47).
VII. THE MERCIFUL PERSON WILL RECEIVE MERCY
“Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.”
(Mt. 5:7).
“To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless.” (Psalm 18:25).
“He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.” (Proverbs 19:17).
“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:7-8).
“Judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!” (James 2:13).
I think we all would agree that the way the verses are written would be better than the opposite:
Blessed are the merciless for they will be shown mercy; I will show myself faithful to the faithless; I will not reward he who lends to the poor; you will not reap what you sow; no judgment will fall on the person who has been merciless.
In a sense God puts Himself in the debt of the merciful person. He honors the merciful person and rewards the merciful person. He shows him mercy in much the same way a person reaps what he sows.
SO WHAT????
1. The Christian is a person who is merciful (Full of Mercy).
2. Among others, three tests of a person’s salvation would be: (1) Have I received mercy, experience the saving grace offered by Christ; (2) Am I a compassionate person, do I show pity on others; (3) Am I willing to forgive others? Do I try to forgive them?
3. When we stand before God He will not ask for “Time Charts” to see what se have done. He will ask for “Medical Reports” to see what has been done in us? Though He expects us to show mercy the key to showing mercy is having received the mercy of God as revealed in Christ.