Christ Methodist Church Memphis
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Christ Methodist Church Memphis
Blessed Are Those Who Mourn | Rev. Paul Lawler
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What if the sorrow we try hardest to avoid is actually the doorway to freedom? Jesus declares, “Blessed are those who mourn,” revealing a godly sorrow that takes sin seriously, leads us toward repentance, and opens our hearts to the forgiveness, comfort, joy, and peace only God can give.
Welcome to the podcast of Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Join us as we dive into this week's sermon that challenges our hearts and minds to grow closer to Christ. We pray that your heart is inspired and transformed by God's Word.
SPEAKER_01Friends, in honor and reverence of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, please stand as we read from the book of St. Matthew.
Beatitudes and Mourning
SPEAKER_01From Matthew 5, verses 1 through 4. Hear now the word of the Lord. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen and Amen.
SPEAKER_03I greet you again in the name and the Lord in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So you just heard Josh, our executive pastor, read these words Blessed are the mourning, for they shall be comforted. Now, I don't I'm not saying anything you don't already know when we affirm that the Beatitudes are paradoxical. In other words, what they promise seem absolutely upside down to the natural eye. After all, what could seem more paradoxical than the claim that becoming sad would make you happy? I mean, come on. What could be more contradictory to the idea that the path to happiness is sadness or the way to rejoicing is mourning? That makes, let's be honest, that makes no sense. That seems absurd on the surface. And so, after all, we recognize that the way to happiness, most of us would, if you were asked, would give much more simple definitions. The way to happiness is pleasure brings happiness, money brings happiness, entertainment brings happiness, self-expression brings happiness. And on the flip side, we would say, isn't happiness also about avoiding pain or avoiding trouble, disappointment, frustration, hardship, and problems? And yet God encapsulated in skin is proclaiming before us, blessed, happy are those that mourn. So to discover what Jesus meant and also what Jesus did not mean, we need to take a deeper
Legitimate Sorrows
SPEAKER_03look. First, let's affirm that in life there are legitimate sorrows, and there are legitimate times when we mourn. We might call these normal sorrows, when we face the death of a loved one or a friend. And it doesn't surprise us at all that the Bible gives illustrations of this and also illustrates that God gives comfort in those times. Sarah's death caused Abraham to grieve deeply, Genesis 23, 2. We know loneliness can cause sorrow. Discouragement can cause sorrow. And we're aware that the Bible illustrates these things as well. 40% of the Psalms are written out of pain or dealing with discouragement or loneliness by David as well as others. Timothy was discouraged in ministry, and Paul writes letters and he covered other things, but he also covered how Timothy should address his discouragement. And so let's affirm together that in the nature of God, God is concerned about all legitimate sorrows that his children navigate in a fallen world. And he promises in numerous places to comfort and strengthen all of us when we turn to him for help. But these types of sorrows that bring that kind of mourning is not what Jesus is talking about here. In fact,
Godly Sorrow Defined
SPEAKER_03Jesus is talking about a godly sorrow. In fact, it's a God-centered sorrow. It's a godly mourning that can only be expressed by a person who is hungry for God. Now, in order to understand that, we need to go back to verse 3, what we covered last week, where Jesus said, There is a blessing upon the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. And to remind everyone where we journeyed last week, to be poor in spirit is to realize that you need help. I need you God. I need the mercy of Jesus. I need the grace of God through Jesus. To be poor in spirit is to realize, to use the language we discovered from the Greek last week, to realize that you and I are spiritual beggars for God's mercy. God freely gives it when we turn to him. But it's also to be poor in spirit is to realize that you are a spiritual beggar for God's grace, which he freely gives when we hunger for him. But without a sense of spiritual poverty, no one can enter the kingdom of heaven. Not without God, I need your grace in Jesus Christ. And what we recognize is happening, and we're only in week two and unpacking the beatitudes, but loved ones, here's something that will help free your understanding. The beatitudes are building blocks of your relationship with God. The beatitudes literally build on one another. Blessed are the poor in spirit, is connected with what comes next, and that is blessed are those who mourn, who recognize their spiritual poverty, and that spiritual poverty leads to a godly sorrow. The poor in spirit become those who mourn. Let's illustrate this from
David’s Repentance
SPEAKER_03scripture. Many of you aware of David's great sin, his great sin of murder, adultery, lying, and manipulation related to Bathsheba and Uriah. And David, you're also aware, because we have the full story, repented and expressed God-centered, godly sorrow. This is why David said things like, Against you, O God, and you alone, I have sin, is a reflection of his godly sorrow. I share that that's predicated upon the principle that God is our designer. And when we rebel against our design, we are rebeling ultimately against our designer. And that was what David had come to grips with after Nathan the prophet had confronted him. And so this is why he writes in Psalm 51, 3 through 4, for I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Now, church family, excuse me, there is no doubt based upon the revelation of God in Scripture. God loves and he honors a morally righteous life. Okay, that that's a given. We recognize that. That's all over the pages of Scripture. But what we want to be wise about based upon God's word is that it's no substitute for a humble and a contrite heart, which God honors even more. That was illustrated last week in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee brags before God. Look how righteous I am. That's a paraphrase. The tax collector, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. And Jesus declares he walks away justified before God. He recognizes the poverty of his own spirit. And in light of that, this is why God says things like he does in Isaiah 66. But this is the one to whom I will look, he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. Church family, the condition of the second beatitude is mourning. But there is a specific reason for the mourning. It's awareness of our sin. That is sin against God and that has separated us from God. And Jesus declares there's a blessing on those who mourn in that lens. Think about this.
Mourning Explained
SPEAKER_03I want to remind you from last week the word blessed, makarios, means happy, blissful, flourishing. Now let's ask a logical question. How is this true? Let's unpack this. Of the nine terms used for mourning and sorrow found in the Bible, the one that's utilized in this passage is the strongest term of them all. It's the Greek word pentheo for mourn. It literally means severe, heartfelt grief, deep inner agony, which may or may not be expressed by outward weeping, wailing, and lament. It is a strong term. The term was often utilized for grief related to the death of a loved one or a friend that is sudden. It is used in the Septuagint, that is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, to describe Jacob's grief when he gets the news that his youngest son has died at the hands of a wild animal. It is used of the disciples mourning for Jesus in his death before they're aware of the resurrection. Now, picture this. Let's go back to David. When David stopped hiding his sin and he began mourning over it and confessing it, what happened when you read David's journal in Psalm 51, Psalm 32, you're aware that God releases a special comfort over his life. He releases forgiveness from on high over his life. And what does David write in light of experiencing God's forgiveness, of experiencing God's divine presence over his life as he repents and as he mourns? David's David writes these words, Psalm 32, 1 and 2. Blessed, happy, blissful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and whose spirit there's no deceit. David's not posing anymore. He's not being hypocritical anymore. David's integrated before his creator, and he knows happiness and blessedness. And he knows that the happiness and blessedness that comes didn't come from the mourning itself. It came from what God does in response to mourning
Comfort in Forgiveness
SPEAKER_03over our sin. Mourning is not merely some type of psychological choice or emotional experience that makes a person feel better as if it's cathartic just to let it go. That has a category and it's a worthy category. But what's happening here is much deeper. It's rooted in communion with the living God. And God, in that communion, responds to the mourner with the reality of divine forgiveness that only God can give. Let me give you a kingdom axiom based on this passage of scripture this morning. Here it is godly mourning, a God-centered morning, brings godly happiness and flourishing. That is not your pastor's opinion, that is based upon the words of Jesus. Now, church, contrast that for a moment. Contrast that with how a fallen world functions, which often comes off like this hide your problems, smile, act like everything is okay, go ahead, pretend to be happy.
A Better Gift
SPEAKER_03But I would remind you this morning Jesus is offering you a better gift, a real gift, a sustainable gift. And here it is. First, recognize the poverty of your own soul. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Secondly, mourn over your separation from God because of your sin. Thirdly, as you bring it to the cross of Jesus Christ, be comforted as God extends his real love and grace through forgiveness and cleansing, and he releases his divine reality into your life. When we read the story of David, nothing broke the heart of David like his own sin. No anguish was as deep as the anguish that he felt when he faced the awfulness and of the depth of offenses that he had expressed out of his choices before God. But that is also when David became happy, when he became truly sad over his transgressions and he received forgiveness from Almighty God. Love ones, there's a deeper theme running out of these passages this morning. And it goes like this Sin and happiness are incompatible. The scriptures does teach that there is pleasure in sin, but if we finish the verse, many of you know it for a season, and then the pain comes. Sin and happiness, true happiness, true flourishing are incompatible. When one exists the other cannot, and until sin is forgiven and removed, happiness, as Jesus is promising, is locked out. Mourning over sin brings forgiveness of sin through what Jesus Christ has done at the cross. And forgiveness of sin brings a freedom and a joy that cannot be experienced any other way. And loved ones, if you would draw near to God this morning, even as I trust that maybe for some of us, God's speaking to us about some things. Maybe even right now, as we're teaching God's word, there may be a sense of grief in your own heart that may be a gift from God. But I want to remind you of the promise of God that if you will take your mourning to the Lord, don't misdirect it. Take it to Jesus. And God has promised, James 4.8, when you draw near to God, God will draw near
Scripture’s Call to Mourn
SPEAKER_03to you. And we need to also be mindful that what Jesus teaches in Matthew 5.4 is not isolated to this one verse. This pattern is found all over the Bible. Listen to the word of God from James 4.8 as we finish the verse, where the Lord through his servant proclaims, Cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double-minded. Now look at this phraseology.
SPEAKER_02Be miserable. Mourn. Weep.
SPEAKER_03You see the thread? You see the alignment with Jesus' words? Let your laughter be turned to mourning. In other words, sober up about spiritual reality. Sober up about your state before a holy God, and let your joy be turned to gloom. And then God gives this promise. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and he will lift you up. He will exalt you. Loved ones, again, this is not isolated to a few passages of Scripture. You may remember in the Old Testament, when people mourn their sin, they actually put on sackcloth and would put ashes on their head, demonstrating outwardly what they were doing before the Lord inwardly.
Broken Before God
SPEAKER_03Blessed are the poor in spirit is a thread that runs from the Old Testament through the new. And the faithful child of God is regularly broken, in other words, pliable before a holy and loving God in light of their own sinfulness. And the longer a believer lives and becomes more mature in the Lord, the harder it is for a believer to be frivolous about sin, to wink at sin. He or she sees more of God's love and more of God's mercy, but they also see more of their own sinfulness and the world's sinfulness. And it takes growing in grace to be aware like this. You ever wondered why the apostle Paul early in his ministry would say things like this? He would say, I'm a sinner. And if you've ever studied it, when Paul gets a little older, he says, I'm a great sinner. And then when Paul's writing late in life, when he's in prison, he's probably facing death at that point, well, he is in Rome, he writes the words, I am the chief of sinners. Is Paul becoming more sinful the longer he lives and walks with Jesus? No, the apostle Paul is growing in grace. And as he's growing in grace, and he knows the love and mercy of God, and he knows the gift that in his weakness God is strong, he's becoming more aware of matters in his own heart that don't align with the heart of God. And in light of that, he grows more humble, and in more in his humility and brokenness, poverty of spirit and mourning, he enjoys even more of God by not posing and being real with God.
Flippancy at the Bar
SPEAKER_03I was checking into a hotel this week. Don Borland and I were traveling doing some work for the Global Methodist Church. Checked into the hotel a little bit late, and there was a big line of people in front of us, and it was one of those hotel lobbies where you're checking in here, but the bar's just right here. Some of you are going, where are you going with this pastor? Just hang with me. The bar's right here. And as I we're we're in line to check in, I can't help but hear overhear the conversations going on at the bar. They're real loud. And I pick up on the fact that they're talking about church.
SPEAKER_02And as they're talking about church, I begin picking up that there are these off-color jokes that are going on about church and some of the matters or other matters related to God.
SPEAKER_03And what I also picked up on in the vernacular, it sounded like most of the people at the bar go to church regularly.
SPEAKER_02But what I heard was a flippancy, an irreverence, even a lot of disrespectfulness about church and the things of God. It kind of gripped me.
SPEAKER_03When even church members make the church the butt of jokes, make light of its beliefs, caricature its leaders as inept and clownish, make or mock its high standards of purity and righteousness, the subject of humorous commentary.
SPEAKER_02The church has a need to turn laughter into mourning.
SPEAKER_03When we smile at ungodly talk, when we laugh at the world's crude and immoral jokes, even when we don't retell them, and we're entertained by them, but we don't indulge in it. This is why Jesus said things like this, loved ones. Who laugh now said that in Luke 6. And what he was observing, if I could transliterate the passage, woe to you that are not sober about eternal things, about godly things, about the bride of Jesus, the church. Woe to you who play marbles with diamonds, holy things. And Jesus gives a word of prophecy. A day will come when a person like that will mourn and weep, but it won't be over their sin. It will be at the judgment. Because they were never sober enough in their thinking and in their heart to take these matters seriously.
Godly Grief Produces Life
SPEAKER_03Loved ones, again, this is a major theme in scripture. When we went through our 2nd Corinthians series a few months back, we covered the passage in 2 Corinthians 7 where Paul writes about mourning, mourning sin. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For we see what earnestness the godly grief has produced in you in the Corinthian church, he's reflecting on. And there's a distinction he points out here, because there is a worldly grief that can be associated with our sin. And worldly grief looks like this. Gee, I'm sorry I got caught. But it doesn't change the heart. Worldly grief, I'm embarrassed by what I did, but it doesn't change the heart. And that's why Paul says that kind of worldly grief only produces death. It doesn't transform your heart. But he shares that there is a God-centered grief. Godly grief produces something. And that's what Jesus is talking about: mourning our sin, being sober about our sin. Godly grief produces something. It produces a repentance. And notice what it leads to. It leads to salvation without regret, a joy in knowing the Lord, a peace with God, a peace in God. That's the blessing that Jesus is declaring over the one who mourns their sin. Happy, flourishing is the one who mourns. They shall be comforted. And the only sorrow that brings spiritual life is growth in godly sorrow. Sorrow over sin that leads to
Gossip and Conviction
SPEAKER_03repentance. And so we recognize the reality of this passage. Loved ones, I shared this with you on an Ash Wednesday some years ago. There was a lady in our church, in our church plant, our first church plant, who for some reason began to gossip about people in the church. She would go over here and gossip to a few ladies about the ladies over here. And then when she was done, there would be another time and she would spend time with these ladies and she would gossip about those ladies, say different things that were not very flattering, and she would gossip about this and gossip about that, and she would gossip about church leaders, she would gossip. I mean, just anything. And as I've shared with you before in that church plant, everybody's in their early 30s. There's not a lot of older people who've been walking with Jesus who understand the wisdom of God from Scripture and how to handle these things. And so I remember a lady in our church reading her Bible and said, I want to bring this to your attention, Pastor. And the Bible says in Matthew 18 that we should go to this person privately, one of us. And I said, Well, it sounds like you're hearing the Lord. That's the Bible. And so she went to her privately and said, very tenderly, with an understanding there's a log in her own eye, dealing with a speck in her sister's eye based on the Sermon on the Mount. She confronts her in love. But the lady wouldn't own anything. She says, Oh no, she's very dismissive, evasive, but wouldn't own anything. So Matthew 18 tells us that the next step is to take two or three with you. And so she asked another lady in the church and asked if I would join them. And so I sat and these two ladies began to lovingly, tenderly, gently confront her about her pattern of gossip. Evasive, wouldn't own anything, pointed fingers at other people. Until someone in the group said, Could we just take some time to pray? By the way, this is the passage that says, If two or more gather in my name, I'm present in their midst. That's actually the context for that passage.
SPEAKER_02And so we began to pray.
SPEAKER_03And as we prayed, the conviction of the Holy Spirit fell on this dear lady. And she began to weep. A broken kind of weeping. As she's weeping, she began saying the words out loud. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. She felt the conviction of God. I'm so sorry. You could hear her. She's mourning her sin. God, I'm so sorry. She would one minute she would go, God, I'm so sorry. And then she would call the other ladies by name that she had gossiped against. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. And what we witnessed over the course of the coming minutes is that sorrow turned to joy. Forgiveness flowed. Her heart was free. She felt and knew she was forgiven as she confessed it. She was forgiven by God. She was forgiven by her sisters. Her heart was free because she was no longer bound up by finding her security and overcompensating in her life by gossiping about other people. And loved ones, this is why Jesus declares blessing. There's a blessing upon those who mourn over their sin. They will be comforted. That's what she experienced. And the only sorrow that brings spiritual life and growth is a God-centered sorrow, a godly sorrow, a sorrow over sin that leads
The Prodigal’s Return
SPEAKER_03to repentance. And I want to encourage you this morning. If the Holy Spirit is dealing with you in any way this morning regarding any sin in your own life, I want to remind you of the nature of God. Remember the prodigal son? Remember the parable Jesus told when the prodigal son began to enter into his own brokenness, the end of himself, if you will, and he began to mourn what he had done and partying and living a lifestyle that was not God-centered and godly. You may remember that as he mourned that, he began turning his heart toward home. And I want to remind you this morning of the image of God revealed in that scripture. Remember that when the father saw him turning toward home, that the father ran after him. Remember that the father opened his arms to him. Remember that the father celebrated him coming home by putting a new robe upon him, by killing the fatted calf and having filet mignon, and by putting a new ring on his finger. Again, do not lose sight of the nature of God as you turn to him in poor, in being poor in spirit and in mourning
Final Principles of Comfort
SPEAKER_03our sin. Loved ones, as we close today, let me remind you of just a few principles to help set you free. Mourning over sin is not being engulfed in despair, because mourning over sin is in the lens of knowing that you have hope. Hope is a person, and his name is Jesus, who took your sin at the cross so that as you are poor in spirit and mourn over it, that you have a living hope who forgives sin. Secondly, mourning over sin is not wallowing in self-pity or false humidity, excuse me, humility. I remember a brother once saying, I believe that God can forgive me, but I can't forgive myself. I would remind you, when you receive divine forgiveness, you are forgiven fully, full stop. And this is why sorrow turns to joy. Thirdly, mourning over sin does not focus on ourselves. Ultimately, it doesn't even focus on our sin. It focuses on God, who alone can forgive sin and remove our sin and cleanse us from sin. And this is why we are comforted when we mourn. The result of godly mourning is comfort. Jesus has promised, they shall be comforted. And this is why you are blessed. It is not the mourning that blesses, it's the comfort God gives to those who mourn in a godly way because He and He alone can forgive you, cleanse you, comfort you in the person and presence of the Holy Spirit, and fill your heart with the blessing of his joy and his peace that passes understanding. In the name of the Father who loves you, in the name of Jesus, who bled and died and took your sin at the cross, in the name of the Holy Spirit who fills your heart and fills you up with his fruit for his glory. In his name we declare these things. Amen. Loved ones, would you stand to your feet? Let me pray over you before we worship God with our closing hymn. Father. I trust that there are persons this morning who've heard your word that are mourning over the right things in the right way. And I pray, Lord, the words of James, draw near. As we draw near to you, draw near to us. And Lord, take this morning that we offer you individually, maybe even collectively in some sense, as you bring to mind as the Holy Spirit convicts and aligns and corrects. So that every person would know, Lord, forgiveness and freedom and cleansing and the gift of new birth for your glory. This we pray in the name and power of Jesus. Amen.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the podcast for Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. We pray that today's message has inspired and encouraged you in your walk with Christ. To stay connected with our church community, visit us online at ChristchurchMemphis.org. We hope to see you this upcoming Sunday for worship as we seek to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples.