Monday, February 21, 2011
The Beatitudes, Part 36 of 50
TEXT: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy" (Matthew 5:7).
IDEA: The fifth beatitude reflects several possible meanings.
PURPOSE: To help listeners appreciate the tensions in the fifth beatitude: "Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy."
The fifth beatitude raises some questions that thoughtful Christians must answer.
What does the beatitude mean when it speaks of mercy?
Is mercy the same thing as grace?
I. What does Jesus mean in the beatitude when he declares, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”?
There are at least three possibilities reflected in three questions:
Do we show mercy so that others will show mercy to us?
Do we show mercy because that’s how we want God to show mercy to us?
Does God show mercy to us so that we in turn can show mercy to others?
The three questions reflect different biblical perspectives, but what does Jesus mean here?
II. Some have felt that the beatitude reflects the principle that we will receive what we give.
Do unto others what you would others to do to you and they will do it.
We will receive what we give. This is the golden rule: The way we behave toward others will determine how they will behave toward us.
Is this interpretation true to life? Is it half-true?
When we show mercy to others, they may not be merciful to us. Jesus restored the ear of a Roman soldier, but that didn’t keep the Roman soldiers from killing him.
III. You do mercy to others as you would like God to show mercy to you.
Does the Bible teach that we can earn God’s mercy? If so, how would that reflect his grace?
God doesn’t reflect the investment broker; we don’t get grace and mercy “the old fashioned way because we earn it.”
IV. We should do unto others as God in grace and mercy has dealt with us.
The fifth beatitude grows out of the first four. We are objects of God’s mercy. If we bankrupt sinners mourn about our condition, and we sense our utter dependence on him, and we in our need hunger to be made right with God, in his grace and mercy he “fills “us.
The first three beatitudes deal with our terrible condition. The fourth deals with our qualification. All we need to be to have a right relation to God is the urgent sense that we have that need.
Mercy comes as a result of mercy. The proof that we have obtained mercy is that we show mercy. Our mercy toward others comes as a result of God’s constant and never-ending mercy.
CONCLUSION:
That God is merciful and gracious isn’t merely a theological doctrine to believe. It is more. It is a reality that affects our relationship to others.
