The Merciful
Notes
Transcript
I believe I have talked about playing this game before. When I was a kid we use to play this game called mercy. We would always play this game after church on Wednesday nights, while we were waiting in line at school, or when we were bored. But you would lock hands with another person and you would then say one two three go, You would then try to bend the other person’s hands backward and you would go until one of you cried mercy. Once someone cried mercy the game was over. When the person called mercy you would quit bending their fingers back and you would show them mercy. Don’t that sound like a fun game. What kind of twisted person invented this game.
Today we are looking at the 5th Beatitude. If you have your Bibles go with me to the book of Matthew, chapter 5. My verse today is verse 7.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
I can see this game that we use to play in this verse. A person that is merciful or the merciful extend mercy to others.
Look at what Mercy means.
Mercy - Compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.
Mercy - Compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.
So, think about it this way. When you were a kid and you did something wrong, you deserved punishment. I can’t count the many times that I got my back side worn out because of the stupid things I done.
It was all deserved.
I was driving home one night many years ago. It was when I was still living with my parents. It was late at night. I was trying to get home so I could go to bed. I had been good driving the speed limit, but I was tired. So, I decided that I would push the gas pedal and try to get home sooner. About the time I got my car going over the speed limit. Sure enough I passed a state patrolman. I was going between 10 and 15 over the speed limit. I pull over and I started begging for mercy. I explained my situation. That I was tired and I was almost home. Just wanted to get home and go to bed. That officer that night showed me mercy.
Did I deserve a ticket? Was I guilty? Should I have been punished?
But I was grateful that that officer shown me mercy and let me go with a warning. That is the very definition of mercy.
Jesus tells us here that Blessed or Happy are the merciful.
Mercy also implies generosity. Have you given of yourself lately? Do you give of your time? Do you give of your resources? Do you give of your money? Do you give of your talents?
When I show mercy I am a generous person.
Mercy also implies forgiveness. Have you forgiven someone that has done you wrong lately? Have you forgiven your children for something they have done? Have you forgiven your spouse for something they have done? Have you forgiven your boss for something they have said or done to you?
We desire mercy but do we give mercy in return.
Mercy also implies compassion. Have you served in ministry? Have you served because you wanted to, not just because you felt obligated to? Do you have compassion on the lost? Do you have compassion for those in need?
Now something else that you must understand. When you show mercy to someone else, you are not guaranteed mercy from people in return.
That’s hard. We tend to want something in return.
If you have ever seen the movie Groundhog Day where Bill Murray relives the same day over and over again. There is a scene in that movie where he keeps rescuing the same kid every day over and over again. Bill Murray catches him falling out of a tree and when he sets him down the kid runs off without saying thank you.
Mercy is sometimes like that. We extend mercy to someone and they never extend it back. That’s okay. The Beatitude just says Blessed are the merciful. It doesn’t say anything about receiving mercy back.
And the reason why it doesn’t matter if we don’t receive mercy back is because of the promise that follows after that.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
As believers our comfort comes in the knowledge that, no matter how the world treats us, God will show us mercy both now and when He returns.
We all believe that God is all-powerful, we all believe that God has the power to destroy us if he deemed fit to. Some day God’s wrath will be poured out on this earth, but right now God demonstrates his mercy to us.
Think for a moment everything that you have ever done in your lifetime. Think back on your past, have you done something that God should have punished you for. Instead of punishing you, God showed you mercy.
How? He sent Jesus to earth to die on a cross so that you would experience righteousness and have eternal life.
Look in scripture and you can find instances where God did not extend mercy. God doesn’t have to give us mercy, but He extends it to us when He sent His son to die for us. But look at these He didn’t show mercy.
The people in Noah’s time were wicked people. God says,
5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
It got so bad that God regretted making His people.
Then there was Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham pleads with God, “If you could just find one righteous person would you spare the city?” And God makes that promise but He could find one righteous person.
Then if you have read the story about Korah and the 200 people that rebelled against God’s chosen person Moses. God was so angry with them that He opened up the earth and they fell in and then He closed the earth back upon them.
So, God doesn’t have to show us mercy. And someday He won’t show mercy any longer.
8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
But we can also see the evidence of God showing people mercy as well.
Noah finds mercy with God.
8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
At a time when the world was wicked and everyone deserved punishment. Noah found favor with God.
God told Noah to build a giant boat and when the rains came God spared Noah and his family.
How many times did David fail God and when he was at his worst he cried out to God...
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
What about Paul? He spent a good portion of his adult life persecuting christians. But it was on a road to Damascus that mercy met Paul and changed his life forever.
1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest
2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.
4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.
6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.
8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus.
9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
We serve a merciful God. His desire is to not crush us for our sins but to show us mercy. God knows we’re not perfect. He knows that we will make mistakes. He shows his love for us, by giving us mercy.
And if after everything that we have done, God can show us mercy, then surely after what people do to us, we can show them mercy.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Before we could ever show someone mercy, God showed us mercy. We need to practice being merciful.
Jesus gives us a good illustration of mercy found in Matthew 18. As Jesus was having a conversation with His disciples, Peter asked Him a question. Peter said, “How often am I suppose to forgive my brother that sinned against me, seven times?” and Jesus replied, “Not seven times but seventy times.” And then Jesus went on to tell him the story of the Unforgiving Servant.
The story goes like this. A king wanted to settle his accounts with all his servants. When he came to this one particular servant that couldn’t pay, his debt was ten thousand talents; the king said cast this servant and his wife and kids in jail until he can pay. This servant falls to his knees and begins to cry out for mercy from the king. The king forgives the servants debts, all of it, and sends him on his way. This king shown great mercy to this servant. It was something that he didn’t deserve but the king extended mercy.
When the servant left the king, he went and found one of his servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid his hands on him and took him by the throat saying, “Pay me what you owe me.” His servant fell to him knees and asked for forgiveness, but the servant wasn’t as forgiving as the king. The servant threw his servant in prison until he could pay his debt. No mercy was shown.
Some of the others servant saw this and couldn’t believe what had just taken place so they reported this to the king. The king was angry. The king summons the servant to him. The king tells the servant how wicked he is and sends him to the torturers until his debt was paid off.
Jesus then tells the disciples that if God has forgiven you, then you should also forgive others.
13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Jesus is giving us a look into mercy. He came to earth to give us mercy. He stretched His arms out on a cross to give us mercy. The least we can do is extend mercy back.
Let’s pray.