Happy Are the Poor and Sad

Good morning, everyone. Please open up your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

For those of you who are new, who haven't met me, my name is Sean, and I'm one of the pastors of

Trinity Cambridge Church, and it's my great joy and honor to preach God's Word to you,

the beloved body of Christ, this morning. If you don't have a Bible, please raise your hands,

and we'd love to bring you a copy of a Bible you could have and use.

We're in chapter 5 of Matthew. We've been going through this since beginning of December, this book.

Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's Word.

Heavenly Father,

my words are inadequate, but your Word

never returns empty.

So, Lord, now may the preaching of your Word this morning accomplish its purposes.

May it exalt

your glory and your name.

may it humble the pride of man.

May it

lead us to proper

mourning

and poverty of spirit in light of your

holiness.

So that we might experience

the true joy of salvation.

open

our ears.

Give us ears to hear

and hearts to receive.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

If you are able, please stand

as I read God's Word.

Let's honor God together by sending

yet the reading of God's Word from Matthew 5,

Matthew 5:1–12

verses 1 to 12.

I'm going to just preach the first four verses today,

but I will read all 12 verses.

Matthew 5, 1 to 12.

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.

Blessed are the meek,

for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful,

for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they shall see 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.

Blessed are you when others revile you

and persecute you

and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely

on my account.

Blessed are the people of God.

Rejoice and be glad,

for your reward is great in heaven,

for so they persecuted the prophets

who are before you.

God's holy and authoritative word.

You may be seated at this time.

Herbert George Wells, H.G. Wells,

might be best known for his science fiction writing,

including War of the Worlds,

but he was also a prolific writer of history.

And in 1935, as a historian,

he wrote a newspaper article entitled,

Greatest in History.

Somehow I was able to find the actual clipping of this online.

He shared this opinion,

his opinion,

about the greatest figures in the history of mankind.

And even though he was an atheist,

H.G. Wells argued that Jesus is the single individual

who has, quote,

left the most permanent impression on the world.

This is what he says.

Jesus is, I think,

a quite cardinal figure in human history,

and it will be long before Western men decide,

if ever they do decide,

to abandon his life as the turning point

in their reckoning of time.

We do not know as much about him

as we would like to know,

but the four Gospels agree

in giving us a picture

of a very definite personality.

They carry a conviction of reality.

To assume that he never lived,

that the accounts of his life are inventions,

is more difficult

and raises far more problems for the historian

than to accept the essential elements

of the Gospel stories as fact.

Now, it is interesting and significant

that a historian,

without any theological bias, whatever,

should find that he cannot portray

the progress of humanity honestly

without giving a foremost place

to a penniless teacher from Nazareth.

Yet more than 1900 years later,

a historian like myself,

who does not even call himself a Christian,

finds the picture centering irresistibly

around the life and character

of this most significant man.

It is one of the most revolutionary changes

of outlook that has ever stirred

and changed human thought.

The world began to be a different world

from the day that doctrine was preached.

In our passage today,

Jesus opens his mouth

to preach his first recorded sermon

in all the Gospels.

This is that dynamite doctrine

that changed the world

and changed human thought forever.

It says in verses 1 to 2,

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,

To open one's mouth

is an Old Testament idiom.

It's a Hebrew idiom

that precedes significant pronouncements.

This is not just us chatting.

This is the Messianic manifesto.

And in the same way

that Moses went up on a mountain

to bring down the Ten Commandments

which told the old covenant people of God

how they ought to live,

now Jesus here goes up on the mountain

and then teaches us

how the citizens of the kingdom of heaven

ought to live,

what they are really like.

So the mountain setting is not incidental.

And the audience is focused.

The crowds are in the background,

as you can see in this passage.

They're in the background eavesdropping,

but the primary audience of Jesus' teaching

is not the crowds.

It's his disciples

to whom we were just introduced

in the preceding chapter.

It says in verse 1,

When he sat down,

his disciples came to him.

That's interesting,

some cultural background

because in our context,

when people want to teach,

they stand up.

When preachers give their sermon,

they stand up.

When professors give their lectures,

they stand up.

But in this Jewish ancient context,

when teachers are about to teach,

they sit down.

And then all their disciples come around,

gather around to listen.

And that is what's going on.

The Son of God,

the incarnate Word of God,

is now speaking.

This is what it looks like

to follow Jesus.

This is what Christian discipleship looks like.

This is what the kingdom of heaven

is all about.

This is what it means

to be an alternate society,

a counterculture

to the kingdoms of this world

that Jesus just rejected

when he was being tempted

by the devil in Matthew 4.8.

This sermon is popularly known

as the Sermon on the Mount,

which is the first

of five extended discourses

of Jesus

in the Gospel of Matthew.

The Gospel of Matthew

is actually structured

around these five discourses.

I think I have an outline

for you to see.

Chapters 5 to 7

is the first one,

a discourse on discipleship.

Chapter 10

is the discourse on mission.

Chapter 13

is the discourse on the kingdom.

Chapter 18

is the discourse on the church.

And finally,

24 to 25

is the discourse on the end times.

After the conclusion

of each of these discourses,

we find some variation

of this phrase.

When Jesus had finished

these sayings,

that's why we call them discourses,

and that's how we know

that this is

an intentional structure

that Matthew has placed,

organized his Gospel around.

The first of these five,

which we're starting today,

is the longest.

And we're at the beginning

of that discourse,

known famously as

the B attitudes.

Which means blessedness,

or happiness.

The first definition

of the word blessed,

you find,

in the Merriam-Western Dictionary,

is to be held in reverence,

or to be honored in worship.

So there is a Greek word

that means exactly that,

and it's usually used

to describe God

as one who is blessed,

held in honor,

honored in worship.

For example,

Luke 1, 6, 8,

blessed be the Lord God

of Israel,

for he has visited

and redeemed his people.

And that means,

let God be held in honor

and worshiped.

Blessed be the Lord God.

But that is not the Greek word

that is used here.

There's another word

that's used here,

and it has a different nuance.

It is translated fortunate

in Acts 26, verse 2,

Acts 26:2

when Paul says,

I consider myself fortunate

that I,

it is before you,

King Agrippa,

I am going to make my defense today

against all the accusations

of the Jews.

The same word is translated happy

in 1 Corinthians 7, 39-40.

A wife is bound to her husband

as long as he lives,

but if her husband dies,

she is free to be married

to whom she wishes,

only in the Lord.

You're wondering,

why is this related?

And then it says,

yet in my judgment,

she is happier

if she remains as she is.

That's the same word

that is used here in Matthew.

Happy.

Fortunate.

I don't believe in luck,

but in modern parlance,

it's similar to how people

use the word luck

when they say,

how lucky are you?

How lucky that you have that job?

How lucky that you are married

to that woman?

How lucky?

That's similar to how

the word blessed is used here.

How happy?

This is the person

that is to be congratulated.

How happy is this person?

How blessed and fortunate

is this person?

Do you know that God

wants you to be happy?

Christian author Randy Alcorn

captures a common misconception

when he says,

being holy is something

we can do in God's presence,

but being happy is something

we're more comfortable doing

behind his back,

which isn't possible.

But truth be told,

there is nothing wrong

with pursuing happiness.

Fourth century,

Pastor Augustine wrote,

every man,

whatsoever his condition,

desires to be happy.

The problem is not

with the pursuit of happiness,

but with the pursuit of happiness

apart from God.

The problem is not

the pursuit of happiness itself.

Do you know whom

the Bible describes

in the foremost way

as being happy

or blessed?

It's God himself.

That same Greek word

used here in Matthew

is used to describe God

in the cult worship

we read in 1 Timothy 1-11,

the glory of the blessed God,

the glory of the happy God.

1 Timothy 6.15 says,

God is the blessed

and only sovereign,

the king of kings

and lord of lords.

God is the happy

and only sovereign,

the king of kings

and lord of lords.

Our God

is supremely happy.

He is sovereignly happy.

He is eternally happy.

And because God

is the original

happy God,

the happy one,

only those

who through faith

in Jesus Christ

have become partakers

in the divine nature

as it says

in 2 Peter 1-4

can be truly happy.

It is

a spiritual

impossibility

for any human

to be happy

apart from God.

So it says

in Psalm 89-15,

happy are the people

who walk,

O Lord,

in the light

of your face.

C.S. Lewis

puts it this way,

God made us,

invented us

as a man invents

an engine.

A car is made

to run on petrol

and it would not run

properly on anything else.

Now God designed

the human machine

to run on himself.

He himself

is the fuel

our spirits

were designed

to burn

or the food

our spirits

were designed

to feed on.

There is no other.

That is why

it is just no good

asking God

to make us happy

in our own way.

God cannot

give us

a happiness

and peace

apart from himself

because it is not there.

There is no such thing.

In these

eight beatitudes,

Jesus tells us

that what true happiness

on earth

looks like.

This is what it looks like

to find true happiness

as you follow Jesus.

If you are a stickler

and you counted

the word blessed

in this passage already

and you counted

that it occurs

nine times

and not eight,

I think that is because

verse 11 and 12

are an expansion

of beatitude number eight

in verse 10

because it continues

the theme

of being persecuted

and because verses

11 and 12

deviate from the standard

third person form

and it starts saying

blessed are you

instead of blessed are they.

so I think it's part

of beatitude number eight

so I think there's eight

but that's really

not that important.

We can subdivide

the eight beatitudes

into two halves.

The first half

ends with the mention

of righteousness.

Blessed are those

who hunger and thirst

for righteousness

and then the reward

is for theirs

is the kingdom.

Oh sorry,

that's the reward

is the same

from the beginning

and the end.

And likewise,

the second half

ends with the mention

of righteousness.

Blessed are those

who are persecuted

for righteousness sake.

And then the first half

begins with the reward

for theirs

is the kingdom of heaven

and the second half

ends with the reward

for theirs

is the kingdom of heaven.

So once you discern

this pattern

that there are two halves

you can also see

that those two halves

have distinctive themes.

The first four beatitudes,

the poor in spirit,

those who mourn,

the meek,

those who hunger

and thirst for righteousness

all describe being empty

or devoid of something.

you lack wealth

or you lack pride

in spirit.

You mourn the lack

of loss of something.

You lack action

or initiative

if you're meek.

You hunger

and thirst

because you lack something

and you need more of it.

But the last four beatitudes,

merciful,

pure in heart,

peacemakers,

persecuted for righteousness sake,

they all describe

being full

or overflowing

with something.

You are full of mercy

so you show mercy

to others.

Your heart is full

of purity,

it's undivided.

So you're pure in heart,

you're full

of the peace of Christ

and so you make peace

with others.

You no longer just hunger

and thirst

for righteousness,

you are full

of righteousness

and so you are

persecuted

on account of it.

So there is

a logical flow

to these beatitudes

from the first half

to the second half.

Each of these beatitudes

is so revolutionary

and countercultural

that we have decided

as a leadership team

to slow down

and take one

or two beatitudes

per week

in similar to how

we did the 10 commandments

when we were

in Exodus 20.

And today I'm going

to go over

just beatitudes one

and two

because they're very

closely related

in verse three

and four.

Blessed are the poor

in spirit

for theirs

is the kingdom

of heaven.

Blessed are those

who mourn

for they shall

be comforted.

And I think

the main point

that God's driving

home with this,

these two beatitudes

is that only

the spiritually poor

and sad

possess

the kingdom

of heaven.

It's a counterintuitive

and paradoxical statement.

How in the world

is it blessed

or happy

to be poor

in spirit

and to mourn?

If I were to

compose

the beatitudes

according to

the moral values

and the cultural

norms of

our world,

I think it would

look quite different.

So I tried

writing it down

and this is what

I came up with.

I think

blessed are the

wealthy in spirit

for theirs

is the kingdom

of earth.

Blessed are those

who laugh

for they shall

forget their troubles.

Blessed are the

assertive

for they shall

inherit the earth.

Blessed are those

who are full

of righteousness

and signal

their virtue

for they shall

be affirmed.

Blessed are the

justice warriors

for they shall

execute justice.

Blessed are the

double-hearted

for they shall

see men

in high places.

Blessed are the

war makers

for they shall

be called gods.

Blessed are those

who are praised

for their worldliness

for theirs

is the kingdom

of earth.

I think

if we're honest

with ourselves

we'd agree

that we have

assimilated

many of these

worldly attitudes

into our own

morality

and our own

outlook on life.

But Jesus'

beatitudes

turn all these

things upside

down on their

heads.

sure

maybe the rich

and powerful

possess the

kingdom of earth

now to a certain

degree

but it's the

poor in spirit

who possess

the kingdom

of heaven.

All of the

beatitudes

command

the exact

attitude

and behavior

that the world

views with

contempt.

These are the

people,

the beatitudes

in Matthew 5

are the people

that the world

would view

as the losers

of the world.

the scums

of the world.

No wonder

Jesus often

refers to his

disciples

throughout the

gospel of Matthew

as little ones.

To be a

Christian

is to be

a little one.

A small one.

Poor in spirit.

The word

poor

here is a

key word

throughout the

Bible

and occurs

many times

in the Old

Testament

and it

often refers

to people

who are

literally

poor

but also

often refers

to the

people of

God.

People of

God are

consistently

described as

those who

are poor.

Psalm 9

12 says

for the

needy shall

not always

be forgotten

and the

hope of

the poor

shall not

perish

forever.

Often

the people

of God

were financially

poor,

physically poor,

but because

of that

it comes

to represent

not just

those who

are literally

physically

poor but

those who

are poor

in spirit,

those who

are meek,

those who

are not

haughty,

those who

are humble,

those who

are afflicted.

For example,

it's translated

the same

word that's

translated poor

in other parts

of the Old

Testament is

translated as

meek in

Isaiah 29

19.

The meek

shall obtain

fresh joy

in the Lord

and the poor

among mankind

shall exalt

in the Holy

One of Israel.

It is

translated

afflicted

in Psalm

10.

12.

Arise,

O Lord,

O God,

lift up

your hand,

forget not

the afflicted.

It's calling

all God's

people as

the afflicted

ones.

It's

translated

humble

in Zephaniah

2.

3.

Seek

the Lord,

all you

humble

of the

land

who do

his

just

commands.

Psalm

149.

For the

Lord takes

pleasure

in his

people,

he adorns

the humble

with salvation.

So who

are these

poor people?

Who are

these humble,

afflicted,

meek people?

They are

the people

of God.

The poor

in spirit

are those

who humbly

acknowledge

their need

for God.

They are

needy people,

not in a

general sense,

but specifically

needy for

God.

In the

New Testament,

the poor

gets lumped

in together

with some

people like

this.

the crippled,

the lame,

the blind.

In Luke

14,

12-14,

Jesus says

that when

you throw

a party

that you

should invite

the poor,

the crippled,

the lame,

the blind.

Because then

God will

bless us

for inviting

those who

cannot repay

us.

And God

will repay

us.

In his

sermon on

this passage,

John Piper,

a pastor,

mentioned a

story of

when he was

speaking at

a small

conference

before I

was born.

And he,

after his

message,

a student

came up,

a college

student,

and asked

him a

very commonly

asked question.

Isn't

Christianity

a crutch

for people

who cannot

make it

on their

own?

And John

Piper

thought for

a few

seconds,

and then he

said he just

responded simply,

yes.

Full stop.

Yes,

Christianity

is for

the poor,

the crippled,

the lame,

the blind.

But why

is being a

crutch a

bad thing?

If you have

a broken

leg,

isn't it a

blessing to

have a

crutch so

that you

can walk

around?

Why is

calling

Christianity

a crutch

an insult?

To the

people of

this world,

being a

crutch,

having a

crutch is

an insult

because they

don't want

to admit

that they

are cripples.

In

explaining why

he ministered

to tax

collectors

and sinners

in Matthew

9,

12,

Jesus said,

those who

are well

have no

need of a

physician,

but those

who are

sick.

That's why

Jesus came.

Yes,

we are

blind.

Left to

our own

devices,

we are

blind,

but Jesus

has opened

up our

eyes so

that we

once were

blind,

but now

we see.

Yes,

left to

our own

devices,

we are

lame and

crippled,

but now

because of

Jesus,

we leap

like deers.

Yes,

left to

our own

devices,

we are

poor,

we are

destitute,

we are

bankrupt,

corrupt.

But isn't

that why

he says

in 2 Corinthians

8,

9,

though Jesus

was rich,

yet for

our sake

he became

poor,

so that

we by

his poverty

might become

rich.

As a

proof of

his messianic

ministry,

Jesus says

this in

Matthew 11,

5,

the blind

receive their

sight,

the lame

walk,

lepers are

cleansed,

and the

deaf hear,

and the

dead are

raised,

and the

poor have

good news,

preached to

them.

Yes,

Jesus is

my crutch,

and I'm

not ashamed

of it.

In fact,

Jesus is

more than

my crutch,

because as

if I can

do part

of the

walking on

my own,

no,

Jesus is

my wheelchair,

no,

he's more

than that,

Jesus is

my everything.

God does

not help

those who

help

themselves,

that is

deism,

that is

not the

gospel.

God

helps

those who

cannot

help

themselves,

those who

are poor

in spirit,

those who

recognize

their own

spiritual

bankruptcy,

those who

recognize

their own

moral

destitution,

their own

insurmountable

debt of

sin before

the holy

God,

they are

those

whom God

helps.

It is

critical that

we admit

this.

Objectively

speaking,

we are all

cripples.

We are

poor in

spirit

because we

are impoverished

in our

spirit,

but not

everyone

admits

this.

So this

must become

a subjective

reality to

us.

And God

tells us

that is

exactly what

he is

looking for

and the

people that

he is

searching

for.

Isaiah

Isaiah 66:2

66,

verse 2

says this,

says the

Lord.

He who

is humble

and

contrite

in spirit

and trembles

at my

word.

That's what it

means to be

poor in spirit,

to be humble

and contrite

in spirit,

and to

tremble at

God's word.

And the

Bible gives us

some vivid

pictures of

what this

looks like

in flesh.

in Luke

Luke 5:8

chapter 5,

verse 8,

when Peter

realizes who

Jesus really

is,

the usually

boastful

Peter,

the usually

kind of

put your

hand,

put your

foot in

your mouth

Peter,

the usually

the Peter

who has all

the braggadocio

you could

want,

when he

realizes who

Jesus really

is,

he falls

down at

Jesus'

knees and

he says,

depart from

me.

depart from

me.

For I'm a

sinful man,

oh Lord.

In the

parable of

the Pharisee

and the tax

collector in

Luke 18,

while the

Pharisee is

looking up to

heaven and

boasting of

his self-righteousness

and raising his

arms to heaven,

and God,

thank you that I'm

not like this tax

collector,

I do everything I

need to do,

I do all the

righteous deeds,

and then the

tax collector

says he's far

away,

he can't even

get himself to

draw near the

temple because

that's how

unworthy he

feels,

he's far off

and while he's

far off,

he does not

dare to look up

to heaven,

he's looking

down and he

beats his

chest and

says,

have mercy on

me,

a sinner.

God,

he's not

there.

And Jesus,

in his

kindness,

says it's

that tax

collector that

goes home

justified by

God and not

that self-righteous

Pharisee.

For everyone who

exalts himself will

be humbled,

but the one who

humbles himself

will be exalted.

Job,

when he hears the

voice of God,

this man who

was a righteous

man,

and because of

the trials that

he went through

was accusing God

and questioning

God,

even though he

still held on to

his faith and

integrity,

when he hears the

voice of God out

of the whirlwind,

he says in Job

42,

5-6,

I had heard of

you by the

hearing of the

ear,

but now my

eyes see you.

Therefore,

I despise

myself and

repent in dust

and ashes.

Just one more

example,

Isaiah 6,

Isaiah 6:5

verse 5.

After seeing a

vision of the

Lord,

a vision of the

glory and the

majesty of our

Lord God,

prophet Isaiah

laments,

woe is me,

cursed is me,

woe is me,

for I am lost,

for I am a man

of unclean lips,

and I dwell in the

midst of a people

of unclean lips,

for my eyes have

seen the king,

the Lord of hosts.

If we have never

felt as Christians,

in light of the

face of the glory

of God,

to just crumble to

the floor,

and confess,

woe is me,

depart from me,

I am a sinner,

then we have not

yet fully appreciated

the glory and the

holiness of God.

God.

Do you know,

brothers and sisters,

that sinful men

are just worms?

Does that sound

too extreme to you?

Because that's not

my vocabulary,

that's God's

vocabulary.

Isaiah 41,

Isaiah 41:4

verse 4,

what God says

to his people,

fear not,

you warm,

Jacob,

you men

of Israel.

I am the one

who helps you,

declares the Lord.

Your redeemer

is the holy one

of Israel.

What is God

saying to us?

You are but a

worm,

but don't lose

heart because

I am your

redeemer.

Yes,

we are creating

the image of God,

that is true.

But morally,

spiritually,

because of our

fallen nature,

because of our sin,

we are but worms

and it is wondrous,

breathtaking grace

and mercy of God

that God takes

mere worms

and declares

them to be

sons and daughters

of God,

heirs of the

kingdom of heaven.

the presidential

inauguration

is tomorrow.

Some people think

that President Trump

is unfit

for his high office.

Some other people

think that President

Biden was unfit

for their high office.

I'm not too

concerned about

either of those.

What's more

shocking to me

and what's more

amazing and

unbelievable to me

than both of

those things

is that you

and I

are counted

heirs,

princes

and princesses

of the kingdom

of heaven.

How can it be?

For that's what

God gives us.

Look at verse 3.

Blessed are the

poor in spirit

for theirs

is

the kingdom

of heaven.

The Beatitudes

begins and ends

with this assurance.

Verse 3

and verse 10.

By bookending

the Beatitudes

with this blessing

and this promise,

Jesus teaches us

that the kingdom

of heaven

belongs to such

as these

as described

in the Beatitudes.

And note well

that this blessing

is in the present

tense.

Theirs is,

not theirs shall be,

theirs is the

kingdom of heaven.

This is a repetition

of what Jesus

started preaching

earlier in Matthew

4, 17.

Repent for the

kingdom of heaven

is at hand.

The kingdom of heaven

does not lie

in the distant future,

Jesus was saying.

It is now.

The reign of God,

the God of heaven

here on earth

is breaking

in now.

If we are poor

in spirit,

then we are blessed

because already

we are in possession

of the kingdom

of heaven.

Not fully,

as we'll see later,

but in a real way.

So my poor

brothers and sisters

in Christ,

hear this assurance

of our Lord Jesus.

Are you aware

this morning

of your own

spiritual poverty?

Are you aware

now of your

moral bankruptcy?

Are you aware

of the insurmountable

debt of sin

that you could never

hope to repay to God?

Take heart

because you have

pledged allegiance

to Christ the King.

Yours is

the kingdom

of heaven.

Beatitude number two

flows naturally

from Beatitude number one.

It says in verse four,

blessed are those

who mourn

for they shall be

comforted.

Those who are

aware

of their

spiritual bankruptcy

and poverty

cannot help

but mourn.

There are two

specific

and one

general sense

in which Christians

ought to mourn

according to the

New Testament.

First,

the word is used

to refer to

mourning our own

sins.

James 4,

8-10

says this,

cleanse your hands

you sinners

and purify your

hearts you double-minded.

Be wretched

and mourn

and weep.

Let your laughter

be turned to mourning

and your joy

to gloom.

Humble yourselves

before the Lord

and he will

exalt you.

Mourning our own

sins,

humbling ourselves

before the Lord.

Secondly,

we not only mourn

our own sins,

we also mourn

the sins of others,

especially that

of our brothers

and sisters

in Christ.

In 2 Corinthians 12,

21,

Paul writes,

I may have to mourn

over many of those

who sinned earlier

and have not repented

of the impurity,

sexual immorality,

and sensuality

that they have practiced.

We see how sin

wreaks havoc

on the lives

of our brothers

and sisters in Christ

and so we mourn.

we mourn

and cry out

to God in prayer.

I think we can

readily agree

that mourning

doesn't really

characterize

many churches

in our day and age.

There is little

solemnity,

let alone mourning,

in so many

church services.

Everything is instead

bright and peppy.

20th century

Welsh pastor

D. Martin Lloyd-Jones

also observed

the same phenomenon

in his day

and he attributed

this partly

to this,

the idea

which has gained

currency

that if we as

Christians are to

attract those

who are not Christians,

we must deliberately

affect an appearance

of brightness

and joviality.

Thus many try

to assume

a kind of joy

and happiness

which is not

something that

rises from

within

but is something

which is put on.

Now probably

that is the main

explanation

of the absence

of this characteristic

of mourning

in the life

of the church today.

It is this

superficiality,

this glibness

or joviality,

thanks John,

it is this endeavor

to appear to be

something

and to cut

a certain figure

instead of a life

arising from within

which controls

and determines

the whole of our

appearance and behavior.

mourning.

By the way,

I highly recommend

this book

if you're going

to follow through

this Sermon on the Mount

studies in the Sermon

on the Mount

by D. Martin Lowe Jones.

The shallow

understanding

of sin

combined

with a shallow

notion of joy

produce people

who do not mourn.

You might be thinking

to yourself,

well, mourning

doesn't seem

all that blessed

or happy to me.

I'd rather forget

my guilt

than enjoy my life,

thank you very much.

It is true

that sin brings

a certain kind

of pleasure.

Hebrews 11.25

speaks of the

fleeting pleasures

of sin,

but that is exactly

the problem.

sin never leads

to lasting joy.

Its pleasures

are fleeting.

It's like

ingesting

fentanyl,

which

gives you

a brief sense

of euphoria,

but then leads

to destruction

and death.

It is mourning

and our confessing

our sins

that we find

true happiness.

as 19th century

English pastor

Charles Spurgeon

once preached,

quote,

it does not

spoil your happiness

to confess your sin.

The unhappiness

is in not

making the confession.

Any true Christian

can attest

to the truth

of that statement.

So months ago,

didn't we learn this

from Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 7:2–4

chapter 7

verses 2 to 4?

It is better

to go to the house

of mourning

than to go

to the house

of feasting,

for this is the end

of all mankind,

and the living

will lay it to heart.

Sorrow

is better

than laughter,

for by sadness

of face

the heart

is made glad.

The heart

of the wise

is in the house

of mourning,

but the heart

of fools

is in the house

of mirth.

When we come

face to face

with our own

sinfulness

and this world's

profound

brokenness,

there are only

two ways

we can try

to fight off

despair.

The first way,

as I mentioned

in the Ecclesiastes series,

is to party

like there's no tomorrow.

Drink the night away

and dance the night away.

Divert yourself

with endless comedy shows.

Forget all your troubles,

but that route

doesn't ultimately work.

The true path

to the peak

of joy

always goes

through the valley

of mourning.

If we mourn,

we cultivate

humility

and submission

before God,

which then

produces

profound

and lasting

gratitude

and joy.

That is,

brothers and sisters,

the secret

to Christian joy.

That is the secret

to Christian joy.

Only those

who are poor

in spirit

can be filled

with the spirit.

only those

who repent

can be forgiven.

Only those

who have a real

sense of sin

can have a true

sense of joy,

of salvation.

Only those

who have died

to self

can have resurrection

life in Jesus Christ.

Humility

comes before

exaltation.

That's how it

always works

in God's economy.

So we mourn

our own sins

and we mourn

the sins of others.

There's still yet

one more thing

that we mourn

in general.

Later in Matthew 9, 15,

some people will ask

Jesus,

why don't your

disciples fast

like these other

devout Jews?

And this is

Jesus' answer.

Can the wedding

guests mourn

as long as

the bridegroom

is with them?

The days will come

when the bridegroom

is taken away

from them

and then they will fast.

What Jesus is saying

is this,

as long as

the bridegroom

of the church,

Jesus,

is with us

in the flesh,

it would be

inappropriate

for his followers

to mourn.

You don't go

to a wedding

to mourn.

But when Jesus

is taken away,

after his death

and resurrection

and ascension

and he's no longer

physically with them

anymore,

Jesus assures them,

yeah,

then they will fast.

Then they will mourn.

We live in this

intervening age

between Christ's

first coming

and then his

second coming

and that intervening

age is characterized

by mourning.

Because even though

Christ has already

inaugurated the

kingdom of heaven,

he has not yet

consummated the

kingdom of heaven.

We are already

in possession

of the kingdom of heaven,

but we are not yet

in full possession

of the kingdom of heaven.

Apart from the first

and the last

beatitudes,

all the promises

are in the future tense.

Look at verse 4.

Blessed are those

who mourn,

for they shall

be comforted,

for they shall

inherit the earth,

for they shall

be satisfied,

for they shall

receive mercy,

for they shall

see God,

for they shall

be called

sons of God.

We do all