Page Three: “Blessed Are They That Mourn” 06/10/2012
Second, it’s a grief over our awareness of evil.
By the way, there is a huge difference between suffering and evil. Suffering, as Oz Guinness says, is dealing with the harsh realities of life and calamity. But evil is suffering the results from sin and wrong.
We can handle suffering that befalls us. But we cannot handle evil apart from a right relationship with God through the Person and work of Jesus Christ.
And the way to handle evil is to see it and feel it as God sees it and feels it. We, like Jesus, must mourn the evil. We are not to laugh at it, condone it, or simply let it slide; not if we would experience this blessedness Jesus refers to.
Third, mourning also means dealing personally with our sins. You might be better to call this a holy mourning that Jesus refers to in the Beatitudes. Let me show you what this means.
Turn with me to the Book of James, chapter four. James uses this word in exactly the same way Paul and Jesus uses it. Look with me at James four six.
James 4:8 “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. (9) Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”
James says these are what are truly important. Verse eight – communion with the LORD; pure hands and hearts; and single-mindedness. From verse nine - allowing your heart to be affected deeply by the same things that deeply affect your Heavenly Father; things like mourning and weeping over the sins of mankind. Why else would the LORD call each one of us to be afflicted and mourn and weep and let our laughter be turned to mourning and heaviness?
Folks, the mourning Jesus refers to in the Sermon on the Mount is a mourning that produces personal righteousness. It works godliness in our hearts. It makes us Christ-like in our attitudes, especially our attitudes towards sin and wrong.
First, blessed comes when we suffering the tragedies of life.
Second, blessedness comes as we grieve over our awareness of evil.
Third, blessedness comes to the heart that has a right relationship to sin and evil. We must mourn the wrong and the evil we see whether it’s in our own hearts or in the hearts of others.
And the promise of Jesus to you who would mourn is this. “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”
You see, God honors this sort of mourning. Yes, indeed He loves to see this sort of mourning. So, when you sense the evil of injustice and wrong and sin whether in your heart of someone else’s, you can be sure this is a good sign. It’s a sign that you are a part of the kingdom of heaven.
Now let me offer you an example of Jesus expressing His own blessedness in mourning. Turn with me to John’s Gospel chapter eleven and verse thirty-three
This whole concept of mourning as the NT reveals is a sure cause for hope. You see, if Jesus could mourn over the death of His friend Lazarus, then we too should rightly mourn when our loved ones leave this world.
But inside the LORD’s groan, see His attitude towards sin and evil and death. He knows the power of sin and wrong. We only have a glimpse of what it truly is.
And what Jesus shows us at Lazarus’ gravesite is that the LORD of heaven and earth will one day remove all vestiges of sin and replace it with a world in which righteousness reigns.
By the way, there is a huge difference between suffering and evil. Suffering, as Oz Guinness says, is dealing with the harsh realities of life and calamity. But evil is suffering the results from sin and wrong.
We can handle suffering that befalls us. But we cannot handle evil apart from a right relationship with God through the Person and work of Jesus Christ.
And the way to handle evil is to see it and feel it as God sees it and feels it. We, like Jesus, must mourn the evil. We are not to laugh at it, condone it, or simply let it slide; not if we would experience this blessedness Jesus refers to.
Third, mourning also means dealing personally with our sins. You might be better to call this a holy mourning that Jesus refers to in the Beatitudes. Let me show you what this means.
Turn with me to the Book of James, chapter four. James uses this word in exactly the same way Paul and Jesus uses it. Look with me at James four six.
James 4:8 “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. (9) Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”
James says these are what are truly important. Verse eight – communion with the LORD; pure hands and hearts; and single-mindedness. From verse nine - allowing your heart to be affected deeply by the same things that deeply affect your Heavenly Father; things like mourning and weeping over the sins of mankind. Why else would the LORD call each one of us to be afflicted and mourn and weep and let our laughter be turned to mourning and heaviness?
Folks, the mourning Jesus refers to in the Sermon on the Mount is a mourning that produces personal righteousness. It works godliness in our hearts. It makes us Christ-like in our attitudes, especially our attitudes towards sin and wrong.
First, blessed comes when we suffering the tragedies of life.
Second, blessedness comes as we grieve over our awareness of evil.
Third, blessedness comes to the heart that has a right relationship to sin and evil. We must mourn the wrong and the evil we see whether it’s in our own hearts or in the hearts of others.
And the promise of Jesus to you who would mourn is this. “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”
You see, God honors this sort of mourning. Yes, indeed He loves to see this sort of mourning. So, when you sense the evil of injustice and wrong and sin whether in your heart of someone else’s, you can be sure this is a good sign. It’s a sign that you are a part of the kingdom of heaven.
Now let me offer you an example of Jesus expressing His own blessedness in mourning. Turn with me to John’s Gospel chapter eleven and verse thirty-three
This whole concept of mourning as the NT reveals is a sure cause for hope. You see, if Jesus could mourn over the death of His friend Lazarus, then we too should rightly mourn when our loved ones leave this world.
But inside the LORD’s groan, see His attitude towards sin and evil and death. He knows the power of sin and wrong. We only have a glimpse of what it truly is.
And what Jesus shows us at Lazarus’ gravesite is that the LORD of heaven and earth will one day remove all vestiges of sin and replace it with a world in which righteousness reigns.