Ardin: Following, Mel's theme of super short bible readings from last week. This week we're doing Matthew five five and six. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Jonathan: Thanks, Arden. Everyone gets on me for long bible readings. Now they get on me for short ones too. Can't win them all. Well, great to be with you tonight.
Great to be opening God's word together. If you're just joining us, if this is, either your first Sunday night or your first Sunday night in a little while, we're working through a series, called The Unexpected Kingdom. Whoops. I don't know why that got there. There we go.
Called The Unexpected Kingdom. As I said, this year, we're trying to understand what it means to trust God and to put our faith in him. In order to put our faith in him, I think it's important that we see and recognize what he's doing. But as we learn from Matthew's Gospel, when Jesus began his ministry, his announcement to everyone was, hey, look. The kingdom's near.
The kingdom's near because he brought it. He's bringing it near. And then it says, He called His disciples. He called the crowds to sit down. The disciples came up to Him.
And He began to teach them. This is so fundamental. You won't wake up on a random day and just naturally understand the kingdom of God in your world. The person who just goes through life isn't naturally going to discover and learn how the kingdom of God operates. We need to be taught it.
And that's what Jesus did. He brought the kingdom of God here. But as we saw this morning, a bit like David when his, kingship started in just one tribe, this minority tribe, the kingdom of Christ starts in a very small way. He inaugurates his kingdom by simply calling a few people to follow after him. And so we've been looking over the last few weeks at this kingdom, the rule and the reign of God, heaven's power come to earth, and we're looking at how it comes in very unexpected ways.
Now Jesus teaches us about this kingdom by, in these few verses that are called the Beatitudes, by showing us who really, the favored people are. And we've seen thus far that it's a bit ironic, because happy are the poor in spirit. In other words, heaven is for the broken people. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Those who grieve are the ones who will actually find joy.
And here we come to these verses. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. And blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. As we jump into this, I think it's important to start by writing what we would normally expect. Normally, we would expect in the world that happiness comes when we attain to a certain status.
How much of your life do you spend thinking, you know, I'm not happy right now, but I think when I get here, I'll be happy. When I achieve this, when I get married, when I have children, when I get this job, when I own a house, when I achieve this degree, when I finish my training, when, when, when, when, when? And we keep thinking, when we get there, when we attain a certain status, that's when happiness is going to come. And we talked a little bit about this already with the flex culture, but we show our status to people so that we influence how others treat us. We have somewhere built into our fallen nature this idea that we give honor to people based on how much they have achieved and attained.
I read this week that a woman came out. I think she's a model or some sort of influencer somewhere. Very attractive woman. She came out on Valentine's Day and published that she has given birth to Elon Musk's fourteenth child. Elon Musk has decided that he's going to correct the evils of society by populating the world with his offspring.
Outside of wedlock, yes. It's pretty crazy. I'm not making this up. And as some people dryly remarked in the comments section, they said, if he didn't have a gazillion dollars, you wouldn't be making this post. Elon Musk is not generally regarded as an attractive man, for those of you who don't know who he is.
And the point that the person was making was to say, this guy's rich. No wonder. No wonder this woman is eager to bear his child. Life operates with the haves and the have nots. We show our status to others in order to influence how we treat them.
And this has worked its way into our society. And so the message we often pass on to our young people is to say, in order to get ahead, you need to gain a status. And so you set up these sort of stepping stones. And we developed all sorts of ideas. Fake it till you make it.
Have you heard of that phrase? The idea there is to say, well, even if you don't have the qualifications, even if you don't have the competency, even if you don't have the skill, act like you do. In fact, you can act like it's so much that people will eventually just give you the status. They'll eventually just give you the credibility because you've faked it. We talked about this flex culture.
But there's another side of it as well. There's this idea of inclusion, and and I'm all for inclusivity. Don't don't hear this the wrong way. But as a part of the inclusion culture that is being bred, people are leaning more and more into defining themselves, labeling themselves, and then using those labels to claim their rights and privileges. What I want you to focus on here is the status becomes really, really important, because status in this world is something that you leverage in order to get where you wanna go.
And I say all this, and it shouldn't be surprising to you. Was there a job you wanted to apply for, but you never did because you just figured they wouldn't look at you and take you seriously as a candidate? Was there a person you wanted to spend time with, you wanted to hang out with, and you thought, you know, I don't know if I'm cool enough or attractive enough, or I don't know that they would wanna even spend time with me? Is there a person that you wanted to learn from or you wanted to show you something, but you felt intimidated to even ask because you felt, well, this is my status. I don't belong.
Jesus comes into this space, and he teaches us that in the kingdom of heaven, actually, having a status has no connection to your ability to inherit. So much so that he says, blessed are those who are meek. Now this word meek is a word that's discussed quite often. But essentially, what we learn is that that in the kingdom of heaven, happy are those who have no status. Happy are the ones who who don't have anything to leverage, Who aren't actually trying to elbow their way forward in the world.
The people who are who are content to to sit back. Who don't take the first helping. The people who don't gate crash. The people who aren't busy accumulating social chips only to be cash at a certain time. Jesus says that in the kingdom of heaven, our low status actually shows our trust in how God will treat us.
And that ultimately, the status that we want is the one that only He can give. I want to explore this idea of meekness. Jesus said, blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. I I suggest to you that those are there's two things in there that are absolutely mind blowing. First of all, blessed are the meek.
You wouldn't think that the happy people are the ones who who are somewhat self restrained, are the ones who don't feel like they can go grab and take. But Jesus is building a bit of a picture for us here. Blessed are the poor in spirit. These are the people who recognize they have a need. They're impoverished.
Uh-oh. We lost the feed. Also, Jesus says, these are the same people who are going to inherit the earth. And so it's contrary to our expectation in two ways. Usually, if we see someone who's gentle, who's someone who is meek, we look at them and we think, oh, that poor person.
They must not have much agency in their lives. You know, what they really need to do is they need to walk in. They need to take charge. They need to rediscover and find their power. Have you heard that?
There's a lot of weird things going on in the world right now. I think one of the one of the most interesting ones is these people who go off, and it's really popular with men right now. They go off into the woods, and they just, like, scream. Have you seen this? Like, they get around, they get in a circle, and they just yell, and they hit stuff.
And I guess the idea is that life has so pummeled them down that they that they can't really express themselves. They can't really show their power. And the idea is that if we go get them in a place that's safe, doesn't matter how weird it looks, we can let them be as aggressive and assertive as they want. And then they'll lose some of that toxicity that they carry around within themselves. I don't know.
I there I've people pay for this stuff. Jesus Jesus looks at those people, and he says, actually, if you don't feel the need to assert yourself, that's great. If if if if you don't walk into a room and think that you're the center of the universe, there's nothing wrong with you, actually. If you don't live life trying to figure out how you're gonna climb the ladder and and get your way to the top, Great. You're content to stay at the bottom?
Blessed are you. You'll gain the earth. Now, some of us might look at this and we might think: Okay. Let's see. So if I sit on my hands enough, if I don't try enough, if I play the part and act the part, I'll get it all.
Right? I don't think that's what's going on here. Jesus isn't trying to say, I'll show you the back door to satisfy all your greed. I think what He's saying here is that the people who are content in not elbowing their way forward, and not trying to get ahead, and not asserting their will, and not climbing up the ladder for power, and not cashing all those social chips. The people who are content not to do that have been satisfied by something else.
The psalmist would say, I have stilled and quieted my soul. Like a weaned child, Like a weaned child with its mother, so is my soul within me. The psalmist is praying to God. The psalmist is saying, God, I have learned. I have discovered.
I have realized that all I need is you. I'm not even like a baby who's just feeling his cravings. I'm like a weaned child. I've learned that when I'm hungry, I don't need to grab for you, God. I just need to wait and trust because you will give me what I need at the proper time.
That's how you get meek. Jesus isn't saying become a doormat. Jesus isn't saying don't have any principles. Jesus isn't saying that you can't make decisions, and you need to be wishy washy, and you need to be someone who has no backbone. That's not what the meek are.
The meek have contented themselves in Christ. And so it's no surprise that in the end, when they have Christ, they will have what belongs to him, the very earth itself. John Stott says, this. I thought this was a funny story. He says, there's a little bit of a hypocrisy sometimes when we think about meekness.
He says, I myself am quite happy to recite the general confession in church and call myself a miserable sinner. It causes me no great problem. I can take it in my stride, but let somebody else come up to me after church and call me a miserable sinner, and I want to punch him on the nose. In other words, I'm not prepared to allow other people to think or speak of me when I've just acknowledged before God that I am. There's a basic hypocrisy here.
There is always when meekness is absent. You see, to be meek is not just to see yourself rightly before God, but it's also to realize you don't need to defend yourself in front of others. You don't need to push back all the time. As Paul would plead with the church in Corinth as they're suing each other, taking each other to court, why not just be wronged? What's the harm in that?
Such is the power of the Kingdom of God to transform us, so that we are content. Lloyd Jones has a great definition. He says, meekness is essentially a true view of oneself, expressing itself in attitude and conduct with respect to others. The man who is truly meek is the one who is truly amazed that God and man can think of him as well as they do and treat him as well as they do. And so the result is this makes him gentle, humble, sensitive, patient in all his dealings with others.
I bet if you think about the meek people in your life, you probably don't see them as meek. You probably just see them as really good friends. Because at the end of the day, they're not trying to get you to think a certain way about them. They're not trying to use you to move life forward. They're just amazed that you would actually wanna be their friend.
And they're just touched that they would know a God who loves them so well. And they look at you and they see in you a reflection of his grace and his creativity and his love and his power. It's meek people who can say things like this. Paul would say: I'm sorrowful yet always rejoicing. I'm poor yet making many rich.
I have nothing and yet I possess everything. But Jesus doesn't stop there. He goes on to say He said, you know, those aren't the only people who are happy. He said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. When Peter and James and John and the rest of the disciples, when they when they heard Jesus say that the kingdom was coming, even after he rose from the dead, they said, okay Jesus, is now the time that you're gonna restore all things?
In other words, is now the time when we're gonna get control of everything? We're gonna get all the land back. You're gonna kick the Romans out when all the promises are gonna come true. Is this the time when we're gonna get, we're gonna get, we're gonna get. As Christians and DA Carson brings this out in his in his commentary.
As Christians, we we can so yearn for experiences of God. We can so yearn for, you know, displays of his power and his love and his greatness and his majesty. And those things are really really good. But Jesus says here that actually happy or blessed are the people who are craving righteousness. Now what do we mean by righteousness?
It's a good question. There's a lot of discussion about this question of what we mean by righteousness. But I like what d a Carson says here. He says, righteousness here means a pattern of life in conformity to God's will. The person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness hungers and thirsts for Still less is this person puttering about, distracted by inconsequential trivia.
This person wants to be righteous, not simply because they fear God, but because the righteousness has become for that person the most eminently desirable thing in the world. At the end of the day, people like this, they love to be righteous. Not as a matter of saying, I kept the rules. At the end of the day, the thing they really just crave is living God's way. These people look at their lives and say, God, I can't think of a better way, a more satisfying way to live than Your way.
And so I just want to live out your will. At the dinner table, in the car, in the classroom. When I'm at work, when I'm looking over my finances, when I'm engaged in a romantic relationship. God, I just wanna do it your way. And it's the sense that these people have tasted of what it means to to live in the way that God says is right and good and perfect and holy.
And having tasted that, they just want more. This doesn't say blessed are those who are forgiven. Now that's true. But we can read this and we can say, okay, Jesus. The kingdom coming means that I've received your righteousness.
And that is entirely true. But that's not what this says. This isn't saying how happy are those who are forgiven. That is true, but that's not what this says. This says, blessed are those who crave.
You know what happens to me about 11:30 if I haven't had breakfast? I start to get dizzy. I get spacey. Some of you are looking at me, and you're like, yeah. You could've viewed you could afford to miss a meal.
That's alright. If I haven't eaten by, like, 11:30, twelve o'clock. Right? I'm I'm starting to I can't function. I'm looking around my office.
I'm like, have I stowed away any food in here? Any candy bars? Anything? Right? It begins to dominate my consciousness.
And if I haven't eaten the whole day, I stop even really thinking about who I'm talking to and what I'm doing. All I'm focused on is when's the next meal so that I can get me through. That's what Jesus is saying. People who desperately crave to be right with God. This is different than just messing up and feeling bad about it.
These are people who are looking for the next opportunity to live God's way. How different is that than the culture? In the kingdom of this world, the kingdom of this world says, you know, the people who are having fun, You know, the people who are really happy? They're the people who just do whatever they want. They're the people who party, and go go out, and sleep with whoever they want, and eat, drink whatever they want, who who, you know, manipulate people, who who who get ahead.
Those are the people that are really happy. That's what the world says. The kingdom of this world says that. But Jesus says, the getting what you want, living by your own personal desires, those who wake up, eat, drink, breathe their own will, are not those who are blessed. In the kingdom of heaven, it's those who eat, drink God's will.
God's way. This statement from Jesus cuts right to the core of our rebellious heart. Doesn't it? Because, man, before we knew Christ, this felt like a bunch of hogwash, didn't it? That's something religious fanatics say.
Living God's way. Come on. And all of us, in our own particular way, have that part of our heart that says, God, I know what you say, but I don't trust it. I don't believe it. And I think my way is better.
In the words of Genesis, we look at the tree of which God said we should not eat. And we see its fruit. And because it looks desirable for eating, we disregard the command of God. And we take and we eat and we give it. And then we give it to those around us.
And we say, hey. Try some of this. But Jesus says these people will be satisfied. So I was challenged by this. Stott says, if we're conscious of slow growth in other words, you feel like your Christianity is not not going anywhere.
The seed of God's truth is not really blossoming or blooming in your life. Ask yourself this question. Is the reason because I have a jaded appetite? In other words, the things that I'm hungering and thirsting for are not the things of God. I've so filled myself up on the world's junk food, there's no actual nutrition for my soul.
And I've actually, at this point in time, I need to learn to change my appetite. We'll skip that one. Say it again. If you want to hear God's voice, we need to remove the distractions from our world. Two takeaways.
First of all, contentment with ourselves comes from knowing God. I'd probably like to reword that. You won't find contentment in yourself until God is present in your life. Until that relationship is restored. And once you know the love of God, you begin to realize that, actually, there's nothing I could ever do to earn this.
But I know Him now and I know I just have it. And I can now be content with the love that God has for me. Contentment doesn't come from getting the next thing or attaining some status. And finally, the happiest people crave being right with God. They really do.
You can feed these people to lions, and they'll die with smiles on their faces. We celebrated the anniversary not too long ago of I think it was fifteen fifteen men beheaded, because they wouldn't recount their confession. Think about that. They said, I'm happier with Jesus. And if you make me choose between Jesus and another day, I'm gonna choose Jesus every time.
Because they knew Jesus made them right with God. Let's pray. Father, would you give us eyes to see just how your kingdom works itself out around us? Would you bless us tonight? Lord, these are words that are challenging for us.
Help us not to be hypocritical. Help us to embrace meekness. And Lord, may You change our appetites so that we crave living Your way for Your glory. Amen.