Transcript

Luke, chapter 24 on the road to Emmaus, and those downcast disciples thinking their lord was dead. And he walks with them all afternoon, and he starts from the beginning of the scriptures to the end, and he explains all of them concerning himself. I'd buy a ticket to that if you're new today. We start a new series today. The second part of a new series that we started last week called how can I be happy when the idea is at the beginning of Jesus Sermon on the mount.

He gives us these eight or nine sayings. They're clever, they're pithy, they're short, they're memorable. Bible scholars have called them the be attitudes. And if you look at them in context, they answer some of these questions about being happy. Except Jesus redefines happy to the way heaven defines happy, so that we grow and mature.

And I want you to remember today, by the way, it's how can I be happy when my heart is broken? This is Matthew, chapter five, verse four. And I want to remind you what we said preliminarily last week. And I'm going to do this for several weeks until I'm satisfied that we are familiar with it. But remember that the beatitudes are not attitudes that make for a happy life.

Neither are they instructions about certain behaviors. Jesus is not saying, I want you to change what you do, and if you do, you'll get something.

Beatitudes do not mean blessed are the people who do x because they will receive. Yeah. And even though we call the series how can I be happy? I want you to know that there's more to blessedness than happiness. To be blessed is to receive God's approval.

You can be happy in life and God not approve you. To be blessed is to get God's favor. To be blessed is to have his endorsement. So blessed introduces someone that we should congratulate, someone whose place in life is an enviable one. They're in an enviable position.

Now, last week I told you that what it means to be blessed, I would. I have found at least four different ways to say that. In the Bible, blessed is more than happy. In the Bible, blessed is fortunate. It's honored, it's enviable.

And in the graph you'll see in the box, if I were going to say that blessed is more than happy, I would start a beatitude with, it will go well with if I were going to say, use the beatitude and say the blessed is fortunate, I would start it with how fortunate is I would start it with, God honors those who I would begin it with, don't you wish you were? All of these? Help us understand how Jesus uses the word blessed now for our short verse today. Matthew, chapter five, verse four. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. And there's lots of ways to mourn. Yes. Lots of reasons that we have our hearts broken. So this is kind of a shotgun blast to the congregation today, and God's aiming for your heart.

If it's broken, he wants to begin to mend it. If it's cold, he wants to heat it up. If it's distant, he wants to bring your heart close. My question is, why would someone mourn in the context of Matthew, chapter five? And the answer is, because they've been disowned for following Jesus by the people who matter most to them.

They feel the harsh, unsympathetic rejection of being publicly shamed by their families. And the reason I know that is the last beatitude, Matthew 511. And I'm going to use the word honored in place of blessed, says, Jesus says, honored are you, when they revile and persecute you and drive you out and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Now, I remind you that this last of the beatitudes in Matthew five, the 9th one, is the only one where Jesus mentions himself. And because it's different and because it stands out as the one where Jesus says, hey, when something happens to you because of me, that's where you get your honor.

Then it governs all the beatitudes that came before it. It unlocks the key for us to understand what the rest of them mean. So that's what's happening here. Jesus is preaching to those who, because they've decided to leave their old life and follow him, it cost them everything. They've been outcasted by their people group.

They're panicked over the coming economic ruin that shaming brings. Also, they've lost worth in their community. They've lost their standing. They've lost face is what an honor. Shame, culture calls it.

It means their identity has been erased. And along with their identity being erased, they're erased. Their honor has been erased. And when you put all that together, can we agree mourning is perhaps the only appropriate response if that happens to you? So, you know, in my sermons, I like to ask questions and answer them.

What does it mean to mourn, pastor? Is Jesus saying, blessed are those who cry? Are they the ones who will be comforted. Is Jesus saying, blessed are those who are sad. Are they the ones that he'll comfort?

The answer is not really. Mourning includes much more than crying or being sad. You guys ready to hear this?

Philip's translation says, those who know what sorrow means are to be comforted by God himself. That's getting closer. Those who know what sorrow means, this beatitude that we read, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. It calls on the faithful to mourn over evil in our own lives as we realize our inability to do anything about it, to conquer it unaided. We need help.

Am I right about that? Have you tried to fix yourself and failed yet?

It will go well for us who are filled with deep regret over our own waywardness. It will go well for us who are filled with deep regret for the evil so prevalent in the world. We are good at spotting evil outside of ourselves, and we're poor in seeing it in us first. Both of them are important. So we're not simply those who've gone through difficult times.

And look, I know my congregation, and I know some of you are in the middle of it right now. Some are coming out of it. Others don't know it yet, but you're about to enter it. Difficult times, deep waters, sad days. We have experienced them.

But we're not simply those who've gone through these difficult times. We're those who understand that all the suffering in the world stems from the sinful and self destructive tendency that all of us have to act as if God doesn't exist. See, what hurts us the most is when we live as if we're our own lords, as if there's something inside of us that fills us with wisdom, where we can live life successfully and figure it all out. And we'll see God at the end when we go to heaven. That is functional atheism.

And the Bible says, the stupid fool says in his heart, there is no God. Do we believe this verse?

If there is mourning, that means that some form of suffering lies behind it. So if that is true, if some form of suffering lies behind all the mourning that there is, how are we to understand these things? Well, let me offend you a little bit. Have I earned enough of your respect to offend you a little bit?

That half hearted chuckle tells me nothing.

Hey, isn't it true that all of us are children of the times in which we live? Yes or no? We share a worldview, and we share a pathway. Everybody in this room, we are indoctrinated in the same culture, and with few exceptions, we, the Christians in this room, have adopted the habits of the world around us. One of the pervasive marks of our time is emotional fragility, fragile emotions.

It hangs in the air that we breathe. We pout and sulk effortlessly. We're really good at it. We are easily hurt. We blame quickly.

We look at me, we break easily. Our marriages break easily. Our faith breaks easily. Our happiness breaks easily. Our commitment to our local church breaks easily.

This is us. I am not preaching to them out there. I don't even know who they are. I know who we are. We are quickly disheartened.

And it seems that we have little capacity to survive or thrive when we're criticized or when somebody opposes us.

A typical emotional response to trouble in the church is to think, well, if that's the way they're going to do it, if that's the way they feel about that, if that's the way they feel about me, then I'll just find another church.

Where are the examples whose lives spell out the rugged words? My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. That's James. One, two, and three. Where are those people?

You see, if we think we're not children of our times, then we can simply test ourselves to see how we respond when others reject our ideas, when someone spurns our good faith efforts, when someone confuses our best intentions. Isn't it true that we all need help in those areas we are surrounded by? And we are a part of a culture of emotionally fragile quitters.

Isn't there too much of the spirit of the age in us?

Therefore, it is mission critical. It is of utmost importance that we begin to spend time with the kind of people, whether alive or dead, whose lives prove there's another way to live. You spend time with people like this that are alive by being in fellowship with them in church. And you spend time with people like them who are dead by reading their books.

And we do that because the Bible tells us to. Hebrews 612. Imitate those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises, son. See that verse? Do you even know anybody like that?

You should. You must avail yourself to fellowship with those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises. So now I'll hold up to us the faith and the patient endurance of a man named Charles Simeon for us to imitate. This guy's one of my heroes. You ready to hear a good story?

Charles Simeon, who lived from 1759 to 1830, 617, 59. He lived through the American Revolution. He died just before the civil war thereabout. Charles Simeon was an anglican pastor of Trinity Church in Cambridge, England for 54 years. How did he last that long in one place?

How did he endure? Especially once I tell you the kind of opposition he faced. Because what he had to put up with, do. Any lesser leader would have quickly fled. They would have gone for greener pastures, just like that.

Charles Simeon did not yield to the bitterness. He didn't yield to the temptation to leave his assignment for more than half a century. At first, he lived on campus at the esteemed Cambridge University. He was one of their professors. As a young man, that's how smart he was.

While he was a professor there, he was radically converted to Christ. He became a Christian and began to live it as a student. Just a few years prior to the story I'm telling you now. Once he became a Christian, the faculty of Cambridge and the student body persecuted him relentlessly. Because he refused to compromise his preaching of the gospel.

And he lived a life separated from the world that just convicted every one of them. Because he said he loved God. And he proved and he lived it. And so they were merciless to him. And yet none of that deterred him.

By God's grace, there was a church in town whose pastor died. And Simeon secretly wished to become the new pastor. Well, wouldn't you know it? Because I'm telling you this story, that's probably what happened, right? Circumstances changed and Charles Simeon was invited by the bishop to become the pastor of Trinity Church.

Here's the problem. The congregation wanted someone else. When the pastor. When the previous pastor died, they wanted to promote the associate pastor, a Mister Hammond. But Bishop York, who's the authority figure who installed the preachers in anglican churches in that area, he refused to promote the associate pastor, Mister Hammond.

Simeon, who is a man of peace, said, hey, look, they don't want me. You want me. They don't want me. They want him. I'll gladly step away.

But the bishop said, if you decline the offer, there is no reason that I have at all that I'm going to promote Mister Hammond. He won't be pastor even if you refuse to become the pastor for any reason. And so Simeon stayed. And when he stayed, things began to happen. Let's just call them fireworks.

So Simeon stayed there, and I already told you for 54 years. And gradually, and may I emphasize very gradually, gradually, he overcame the opposition. The first thing the congregation did in rebellion to Simeon was to refuse to allow him to be the preacher for the Sunday afternoon service. So the church would meet in the morning. On the Lord's day, they would have their regular services.

Charles Simeon would preside over it. They would break for lunch, and then it was up to the congregation. They had the discretion. They said, we're going to have a Sunday afternoon service after lunch, they said, but our preacher, you don't get to be the preacher. Guess who they picked?

Mister Hammond. For five years, Mister Hammond came in on Sunday afternoon and preached to the congregation who loved him, but didn't love their pastor. When Mister Hammond left on his own accord, the congregation still refused to assign to their pastor of five years. Now the Sunday afternoon service. Instead, they picked another independent preacher and paid him to do it for seven more years.

Finally, in 1794, Simeon was chose to fill that preaching spot after twelve years. So for twelve years, Charles Simeon served a church that was so resistant to his leadership, they would not let him preach Sunday afternoons, but instead hired an assistant to keep him out.

They also didn't send him any greeting cards either, I'm assuming when that was happening. Simeon said, okay, well, I'll start a Sunday night service. And when he announced it, just about the whole town not related to the church showed up for the Sunday night service. Many townspeople came, but the congregational leaders locked the doors to the chapel while the people stood waiting to hear the gospel. The street.

One time when this happened, like the next Sunday, Simeon hired a locksmith to come and unlock the doors. But the next week, the doors were locked again. And when the doors were locked again, Simeon relented and he dropped the service altogether. Well, that was the first act of rebellion. The second revolting act against their preacher was the locking of the doors to each bench in the chapel on Sunday mornings, so that no one could be seated to hear the word preached or to worship God.

In the old ways that the chapels were built in London, England, there were like bars, wooden bars over each row. And someone who gave a lot of money to the church got to claim the row and they got to lock the pew doors, the pew holders. Not only did they lock them, they didn't even come to church. They refused to attend, and they refused to allow others to sit on their personal rows. So at his own expense, Pastor Simeon went and bought some chairs, and he put them in the aisles and he put them in the corners and the crannies of the room.

But the church wardens came and grabbed all those chairs, by the way, at his own expense. The church wardens came, grabbed all the chairs and piled them up in the chapel yard.

Amen.

When Simeon did what all pastors did in the 18th century. Walk the streets to go visit his parishioners to pray for them. Hardly a soul would open the door to him for prayer. That situation lasted ten years. Get this.

The records show that in 1792. Simeon received a legal ruling. That the pew holders could not lock their rows. But he never used it. Instead, he chose to let his steady ministry of the word, his faithful ministry of prayer.

His kind, forbearing demeanor. To break through their hardened hearts. You see, Charles Simeon saw his suffering. As a test of the love of God in him. And may I tell you, he gloriously passed the test.

Simeon's trust in his lord won the day. After about 15 years, he later wrote to a friend. That peace had come to the church. And that he had the joy of ministering to a united and affectionate flock. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Well, pastor, are you saying that as christians, we should seek out suffering? Everybody, look at me. Good night. No.

Heavens to Betsy. No, but listen. We're taught to recognize that suffering is an extraordinary teacher. You see, I want you to write this down. Pain rearranges our priorities.

Pain makes us take inventory of our lives. It causes us to change. You know, it's true that you learn more when you fail than when you succeed. Have you noticed that when you get it wrong. You have to work harder to get it right?

When you get it right, you just think you'll always do it right. Same thing. Pain makes us discard poor habits. Pain makes us throw away old ways that don't promote holiness. To get rid of things that don't add value to our lives.

To get rid of things that don't add value to the lives of others. It is an extraordinary teacher. That's why the writer of ecclesiastes, probably Solomon, wrote in chapter seven, verses two, three and four. Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the House of feasting. Well, I know what I would pick if I had a choice between the two.

But it doesn't mean I'd pick the better one. Better to go to the house of mourning. Than to go to the house of feasting. For that's the end of all men. And the living will take it to heart.

Sorrow is better than laughter. And here's why. For by a salad, a sad countenance. The heart is made better. You see, God uses your mourning and your pain.

To make your heart for him stronger. Whether you think you need it or not. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning. The heart of fools is in the house of Mirth. So listen to me.

Mourners endure sufferings, and the blessed ones among them experience the comfort of God. In fact, they're to be envied. But don't we generally regard mourners as the most unfortunate people?

Don't we see them as people to be pitied and cared for and helped and consoled? But we don't see them as those to be envied because they're receiving God's blessing. But that's what this beatitude teaches, that you can be honored and blessed by God in all the pain you're enduring. Because if you're enduring it for Jesus sake, the promise is you will be comforted. You will be consoled.

God will sit in the seat next to you, put his hand on your shoulder and say, I love you. It will be okay.

The ones Jesus is referring to in our verse are blessed because they will be comforted in their troubles. They are the fortunate ones because God sees them.

This is why ordinary sadness and mourning is not in view in Jesus beatitude. Pastor, are you saying that the only legitimate mourning in the Bible is when someone is shamed for following Christ? Everybody look at me again. Good night. No.

Heavens to Betsy. No.

But listen very carefully. But some who grieve the death of a loved one, some who mourn some other kind of tragic loss, never make it out of the dark pit.

And regrettably, they remain in their sadness. But this is not so for Jesus hearers who've lost everything on his account. It's different. See, it changes our priorities. So here's the application of the message.

I'm almost done. Perhaps we should bear in mind that unbelievers often just shrug off the serious issues of life. The people, you know that don't know Christ yet are living their lives in a way they just don't care about the things that you care about. Some of them don't care about the things that really matter. That's a fact that's very evident in our modern pleasure loving generation.

So unbelievers, non Christians, in their seeking of self gratification, in their pursuit of pleasure, they don't grieve over sin or evil. And because they not, and because they do not grieve over what's wrong in themselves, they do not repent. And because they do not repent, they take virtually no steps to set things right in their homes or in their communities. That's why the psalmist wrote in psalm 119, verse 136 rivers of water run down from my eyes because men don't keep your law. Listen, the church needs to hurt over the simple fact that people in darkness want to remain in darkness.

They don't care about the truth, and they don't care about what God says. They don't need our judgment. They need our evangelism. Does that make sense? They need our tears to roll down our cheeks because men don't keep the Lord's law.

It is those who mourn in the face of the evils around us. It is those who mourn over the rigid unbelief of the gospel in our culture. It is those who mourn the ways that the church is despised. They're the ones who are truly blessed. They're the ones in enviable positions in the heavenlies.

They're the honored ones. I want to be one of them.

It's to those who weep because men forsake God's law that Jesus holds out the promise of ultimate comfort and consolation.

You see, those people mourn now, but I want you to never forget. Now is not always because God loves you and because he's full of compassion. This thing you're dealing with, it too shall pass. God will turn the page on this chapter for you. God will get you through it.

For the glory of Jesus, the now you're in is not going to be your always. Do you receive that today?

Because that's what God says to you. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. That's how you can be happy. When your heart's broken, God changes your priority to his. Let's bow for prayer today.

Father, take the preaching of your word.