This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on Oct 17th 2021 byNavaz D via zoom. For the audio & video please click here. To listen to the worship please click here.
CREATING A COUNTERCULTURE – PART 5.
CREATING A COUNTERCULTURE – PART 5
1. INTRODUCTION
Over the last few weeks, we have been looking at how
Jesus came to usher in the Father's Kingdom- an upside, inside out Kingdom Jesus
came to establish a spiritual kingdom not of this world and which is eternal.
Jesus was describing how a true disciple or citizen of
the Kingdom should live. The Jews had
encountered and experienced cold, cruel religion that was ritualistic. It
fulfilled the letter of the law, but it was cold and heartless. Through this
sermon, he is showing them how the law really needs to be interpreted and
applied.
Here is a caution I would like to add as we listen to God's word this
morning. Jesus ends his sermon with a parable of two men; one who built on sand
and one who built on the Rock. Sand is the religious ritualistic approach where
we like our ears to be tickled with information but makes no transformational
impact. The one who builds on Rock is like a true citizen of the Kingdom where
it is transformation inside out. My prayer is we will not merely be hearers of
the WORD but allow Him to rearrange our hearts, minds, and actions.
SUMMARY
Jesus starts with the foundational core beliefs, which
are these:
Unless you see yourself as insufficient, poor, and
depraved spiritually, you will never in humility to God nor acknowledge
your need of a Saviour. When we encounter our human depravity, we need to mourn
our sinful state so that we may know God's pardon and comfort. Godly sorrow
or mourning leads to true repentance, i.e., heart conviction that leads to
behavioural transformation. This requires meekness – surrender to God
because you know that you can do nothing apart from Jesus. From this place
of dependence and surrender, we will seek, hunger and thirst for His Kingdom
and righteous rule first and above all else. And He promises that all this
and more shall be added to us.
Today we are
going to look at the next beatitude. Probably one of the most difficult to put
into practice.
2.BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL,
FOR THEY SHALL OBTAIN MERCY. MATT 5:7
Blessed or
happy- Everybody is
in pursuit of happiness. Is it wrong? No. Here is what Jesus is saying: you
want to be happy? Then this is how you will find true happiness. Happiness
is a by-product of the kingdom lifestyle.
Happiness is found in being poor of spirit, mourning,
meekness and hungering after righteousness.
Today people are in the pursuit of happiness. They feel it's
in the accumulation of wealth, things, and a certain lifestyle that they will
be happy. This is the great deception. Depression has been on the rise despite
this. This great deception is leading to greatest depression of all time.
As Christ-followers the secret of the Kingdom has been given
to us. We need to be the happiest people on earth because Jesus has shown us
how.
The true pursuit of happiness will drive us into the presence
of Jesus. He said if we abide in Him
our Joy will be made complete
BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL:
Keep in mind that Jesus is addressing his followers. If
you are in the Kingdom of God, you have already obtained mercy. You can
only enter the Kingdom of God if you seek God's mercy.
The mercy seat is the starting place. We all come to God and receive pardon because of His rich
mercy.
Mercy is at the heartbeat of God. Were that not the case God would not have made a way for His
people to obtain forgiveness. We can look at all the animal sacrifices in
the OT and think God was so harsh. Quite the opposite. He was providing
them with a way out until the fullness of time when He sent Jesus to die and be that
sacrificial lamb once and for all. So, it is mercy all the way through. Ps103
reminds us that He does not treat us as our sins deserve. Let us never
forget that.
The central message of the gospel is God who is rich in
mercy made us alive in Christ.[1] He
demonstrated his love for us while we were yet sinners.[2] He chose us before the
foundations of the world were laid.[3] Just stop and thank God
that He chose to have mercy on you and me.
The Kingdom of God is all about giving not getting. And even what we receive from God is so that we in turn can
give.
Jesus has always been concerned with what's going on in our
hearts- because out of the overflow of the heart we speak and act. That is
why the first 4 beatitudes deal with our hearts. From that place and only that
place can we do the rest.
3. WHAT IS MERCY.
The Romans and the religious leaders were merciless. The
Romans saw mercy as a sign of weakness. Jesus was merciful and compassionate to
the poor, the blind, the cripple, the demon-possessed, the sinners, tax collectors.
This word mercy – Elemnes is used only twice in
the NT. Here and in Hebrews 2:16. The other Hebrew word Chesed is
the more commonly used word.
Kingdom people are mercy givers. It is tangible.
Mercy is an element of salvation[4] (Eph.2) So mercy is behind the scenes in salvation. Mercy is behind
forgiveness. Mercy and forgiveness are two sides of the same coin.
God's mercies are new every morning (Lam 3:23, Is 43:19). He gives us a fresh start each day. Mercy is
more than forgiveness. Mercy gives us a second chance, because we are commanded
to forgive 70x7.
Mercy is not giving someone what they deserve.
Grace is giving someone what they don't deserve.
E.g.) Someone steals a meal from the canteen. Judgement would be you
call out the wrongdoing and punish the crime.
Mercy is not punishing the crime.
Grace is giving you another hot meal. You cannot have grace
without mercy. You cannot show grace without a proper understanding of mercy.
Mercy also requires action.
Where can we expect mercy from?
Can I expect people to be merciful to me? I cannot demand it, nor
can I expect it, nor am I entitled to it. I can expect mercy only from God. It
is not your right to ask or expect mercy from people. Jesus who showed so much
mercy to the broken were the very ones who screamed crucify him!!
Is this mercy deal a tit for tat? If I show mercy, I will be shown mercy? No! this is addressing
people who are already in the Kingdom who are there because they were shown
mercy first. Also, it would be a contradiction of salvation based on grace
alone. So, we must always understand scripture in the context of the whole
counsel of scripture.
4. WHAT MERCY IS NOT.
We cannot give mercy where we are not
authorized to. As a teacher, I must grade a student in all fairness.
It is not up to me to overlook the wrong answers and mark them right.
Mercy does not excuse wrongdoing. It is not
calling wrong as right. Remember Jesus in His mercy did not condemn the woman
caught in adultery but neither did he condone her sin. He told her to go and
sin no more. He called her up to a higher standard.
Mercy is not avoiding confrontation. We could
disguise as mercy when we are afraid to
confront conflict because of our need to
please people.
Mercy does not encourage dishonesty, disloyalty etc.
Mercy does not condone indiscipline.
Mercy is not toxic where it enables irresponsible
behaviour.
5.WHAT IS MERCY? (CONTINUED)
And yet mercy is not treating a person as they
might rightfully deserve. It is like the parable of the unmerciful servant. The other
servant owed him money. He had every right to throw him in jail…. But he was
shown the better way. He was forgiven a debt he could NEVER repay. He had an
opportunity to do likewise.
Mercy requires that we are able to see people's
pain and respond with a heart of pity and make the effort to help, even if it
is someone who has illtreated you — that's mercy.[5]
It is kindness, compassion in action.
Mercy is costly- it will cost
you even financially, emotionally etc. It is to give someone something they don't
deserve when they have hurt you.
Jesus is not interested in our religion. He said I desire mercy and not sacrifice. You
can pray, you can tithe, you can attend all the meetings and harbour unmerciful
thoughts towards people. That is what Jesus was getting at when the teacher of
the law asked Him what he should do to inherit eternal life. Jesus did not
commend his religious acts. He gave him the story of the Good Samaritan where
the kindness and mercy of the Samaritan toward the Jew (who considered him as
unclean)
6.
THE DILEMMA[6]
Real-life is complex for
Christian people who seriously want to live out their faith in a sinful world. It is not black and white as some might think.
Remember truth comes in
layers and is multidimensional. Sometimes we must hold two truths in tension
i.e., Justice and mercy. We are called to be merciful while not allowing
God's standard to righteousness to slide. For this we need wisdom from above: But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first
of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy
and good fruit, impartial and sincere. James 3:17
7.
CONCLUSION Mingle Justice and Mercy
He has shown
you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you. But to do
justly,
To love [a]mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8
God's will is that
sometimes we deal with people with what they deserve, whether punishment or
reward (call that justice).
And God's will is that
sometimes we recompense people with better than what they deserve (call that
mercy). In upholding the claims of justice, we bear witness to the truth
that God is a God of justice. In showing mercy we bear witness to the truth
that God is a God of mercy.
So how do we know when to show mercy and when to show
justice? This balance
will come only as we walk closer to Jesus. We may get it wrong at times and we
need to trust our redeeming God to overturn our wrong choices.
Even in our execution of justice we can show mercy. While we sometime cannot condone the action of a person,
we can still be gracious and loving in our dealing with the person.
Remind yourself of how merciful God has been to you.
Remind yourself of how people have been merciful to
you.
Think about how you can show mercy today. How can you
make being merciful a lifestyle because it is a core belief? If we want to
be more like Jesus then we have no choice but to be merciful.
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