Latest / Fairview Presbyterian Church (PCA) Sermons / Real Happiness According to Jesus: Blessed Are Those Who Mourn (Matthew 5:1-12) - Rev. Josh Grimm

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Real Happiness According to Jesus: Blessed Are Those Who Mourn (Matthew 5:1-12) - Rev. Josh Grimm · Fairview Presbyterian Church (PCA) Sermons

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Good morning. It's great to be back with you
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all, brothers and sisters, to share from God's
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words. We're gonna be in the Gospel of Matthew
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today, looking at the second beatitude. I'm gonna
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be reading, for the sake of context, Matthew
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5, 1 through 12, the opening of Jesus' Sermon
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on the Mount, but we're gonna focus on the second
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beatitude today, blessed are those who mourn.
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And just by way of introduction, I'm not really
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going to argue this with you, but there's different
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ways that people interpret the Beatitudes. But
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kind of the path we'll be taking today based
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off of some people brighter than me in biblical
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studies. And I can refer you to their books if
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you're interested in a late summer rabbit trail
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of theology. But the Beatitudes are Jesus inviting
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us into his way, his vision of what the really
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good life looks like. What does the deeply happy,
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truly flourishing kind of Psalm 1 life look like?
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That Jesus gives us a part of a distillation
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of his teaching on what that is in the Beatitudes
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as countercultural as they are. And especially
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the one that we're looking at today is a very
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countercultural one. But that's kind of the standpoint
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from which I'm interpreting these Beatitudes
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that Jesus is giving us. his wisdom, his invitation
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to live the truly good, the truly happy, the
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truly flourishing life in and through him. This
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assumes the good news of his gospel, that Jesus
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has come on the scene proclaiming earlier in
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Matthew chapter four, and of course that comes
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to its apex, its culmination in his death, his
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resurrection, and his ascension. So hear God's
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word this morning from Matthew five. I'm gonna
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be starting at verse one. Now when Jesus saw
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the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and
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sat down. His disciples came to him and he began
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to teach them. He said, blessed are the poor
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in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be
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comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will
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inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger
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and thirst for righteousness, for they will be
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filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will
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be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart,
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for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,
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for they will be called children of God. Blessed
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are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
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for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed
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are you when people insult you, persecute you,
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and falsely say all kinds of evil against you
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because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great
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is your reward in heaven, from the same way they
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persecuted the prophets. who were before you.
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Please pray with me as we come to God's word.
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Let's pray. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we
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thank you that you have not left us in the dark
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about who you are, but that you have spoken to
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us so that we can know you, so we can be rescued
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by you, so we can love you, so we can grow in
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our love for our neighbors, for our church family
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around us. We pray that you would open our hearts
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and our minds to your word today by your spirit.
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And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
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Well, as was mentioned in Peter's introduction,
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and I might have mentioned, if you're in Sunday
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School, my REF update, I think I kind of forgot
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to talk about my family. Just dived into ministry
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update. But my wife Ashley and I have five kids.
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Our oldest is nine. Our youngest will be two
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in November. And it's kind of hard for us to
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believe now, but a few years ago we had fewer
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children. But a few years ago we had, you know,
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I mean, we started out with none, right? You
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know, losing my train of thought. We started
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with one. Anyway, but I have a scene in my mind
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of a very memorable dinner a few years ago when
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we had fewer children. We had three children,
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and we were sitting at our dinner table. And
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one of the things we had enjoyed in this season
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of life, which was, I think, sometime around
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2020, because it was before our... second youngest
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now, Charlotte was born in 2021. But we had been
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enjoying this family of cardinals who had made
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their nest in a tree kind of behind our house.
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And you had the daddy bird and the mama bird
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would be. buzzing around, taking care of the
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babies, making their happy chirping sounds as
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anxious parents, but trying to take care of the
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little hatchlings. And our kids followed. We
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saw the nest, and we saw the eggs, and we had
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a couple of baby birds hatch. And that was exciting
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to see and exciting to hear. The young babies
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start to chirp, and the cacophony of sounds of
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this happy bird family. And one night we had
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this very memorable dinner where we kind of had
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that in the background, but the cardinal voices
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sounded kind of strained. You might see where
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this story is going to take a dark turn. But
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the anxious sounds of the parents were not the
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anxiousness of providing the food for them, but
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something was clearly going wrong. And so this
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interrupts our dinner. We all go to this back
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window to see what is happening here at the nest.
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And the parents are flying around in distress.
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And we had this little tree where the nest was
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by our AC unit in the back. And this snake has
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slithered its way up the tree and is aiming for
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the nest. Now, my wife is like, of snakes, doesn't
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even want to see a picture of them. I can be
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kind of okay observing snakes if we're at like
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a zoo or something and I can see them behind
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glass, but I try to gin up my courage and...
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Isaac, our oldest, was around four at the time,
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and we go to the backyard and try to find a brick
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or a shovel to see, okay, is there something
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we can throw at this snake to get it away without
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having to get really close to the snake? Eventually,
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I think I threw some bricks at the snake. The
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snake goes away, but we can see probably at least
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one of the eggs has been eaten, and there is
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a baby bird who had been damaged. Like it had
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fallen out of the nest in the course of everything
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that happened once we make sure that the snake
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is away You know we take the shovel we get the
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baby bird back into the nest and You know kind
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of wait to see what happens now Unfortunately,
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you know the the next day we go we go back to
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like look at look at what's happening and we
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hear the mournful sounds of the mama Cardinal
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and And we can see that baby bird who had been
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wounded was no longer there anymore. And it makes
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me tear up thinking about the story because we
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were, of course, sad for this little bird family
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that had been destroyed as much as we get used
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to as humans, the reality of death in the natural
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world and the animal world. But it was also one
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of our kids' first very close -up encounters
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with death and grief. That we had this little
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bird family that we had enjoyed seeing their
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life come together. And now there's the sadness
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of the reality of death. And I remember Isaac
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Rubin and Liza, who were starting at four and
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younger, were crying. And here I was as a young
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father, like, man, I'm tearing up. What do I
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do with myself? But this moment of bringing my
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kids in a different way into the reality of death
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and of grief and loss. And of course, we read
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from Revelation 21 of Jesus' promise to make
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everything new and to wipe away every tear from
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our eyes. But that story kind of draws you in.
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You can surely think of experiences with grief
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and loss. not just of animals, right, but of
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people, and the reality of death, the reality
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of sadness in our world, and is in precisely
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only this world that we live in, whether it's
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the unexpected or the expected loss and suffering,
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it's only in this world that Jesus comes in with
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the Beatitudes, and he says this, the one that
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we focus on today, Blessed are the mourners,
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for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the
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mourners, for they shall be comforted. And we
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think, how can you say, Jesus, that the deeply
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happy, truly flourishing people are the people
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who mourn, the people who grieve? Well, of course
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it is connected to the promise that it's exactly
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and only those kinds of people who will be comforted.
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But I think we have to wrestle with this. If
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you think about the different places you can
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approach grief and loss and sadness from so often
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in our American culture today, we tend to deny
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our sadness, whether it's about death or just
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the things that we are suffering with. We want
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to deflect. We want to press things down. Sometimes
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that can take us and the people around us into
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places of despair. We try to detach from them.
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In the culture of Jesus' day, it was an interesting
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dynamic with suffering and loss, because on the
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one hand, unlike our culture, they were more
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comfortable with visible displays of grief, whether
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it is at death or at suffering, at a time of
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calamity. They're much more comfortable with
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that than we are in our culture. And yet, in
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some pockets of the Jewish culture of Jesus'
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day, people might say, well, like the man born
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blind. If you are suffering, if you are disabled,
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if you have lost someone, doesn't that mean that
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you've done something wrong? Doesn't it mean
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that you have, who sinned, Lord, this man or
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his father? There was that kind of response so
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often to the grief and the brokenness of the
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world around them. Sometimes today people might
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say, well, suffering, we can just overcome it
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through our... our power, like the Buddhist,
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we just need to detach and then we can find this
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inner peace in this nirvana. If we just watch
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these Instagram or TikTok reels or follow this
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self -help guru, we'll be able to be okay in
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the face of what's gone wrong within us and what's
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happened to us and what is going wrong outside
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of us. And instead of all these different paths,
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Jesus instead invites you and me and y 'all together
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as a church family to do something different.
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He invites you to grieve with him in the sure
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hope of his comfort. Jesus invites you to grieve
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with him, looking to the sure hope of his comfort.
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And we're going to break down three different
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dimensions as we take this passage in light of
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the rest of the Bible of what Jesus invites you
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and me and y 'all together to grieve or to lament.
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And the first of these is this, that there's
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an invitation to lament sin with Jesus. There's
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an invitation to lament your sin, y 'all's sin,
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other people's sin with Jesus. As Jesus' ministry
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opens in Matthew 417, what does he do as he begins
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his ministry, but he declares, repent for the
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kingdom of heaven has come near. Turn from the
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way that you've been going and embrace me and
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embrace This fulfillment of all the Old Testament
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that it talked about of a reign of righteousness
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and forgiveness and peace that it has come and
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it's been embodied in the person and ministry
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and work of Jesus himself But that that ministry
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as we confessed and our confession sent earlier
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For it to matter at all has to start with you
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and I being reminded of the reality of our sinfulness,
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that we more than we have realized have fallen
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short of God's perfect standard of holiness and
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love and thought and word and deed by the things
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that we have done and by the things that we have
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left undone. And the thread of the ministry of
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Jesus so often is encountering people who are
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in the midst of their sin and in the midst of
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their sin offering them forgiveness, right? As
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they repent and turn from it. But to receive
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the comfort of Jesus's forgiveness that is based
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solely on who he is and what he has done for
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us. It starts with us saying, yes, I'm Josh and
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I'm a sinner, right? That I need to be able to
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grieve my sin to be able to look to the Savior.
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Jesus comes as the suffering servant who, as
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Isaiah says, bore our iniquities for us. And
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so as you think about your sin today. It's like,
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well, isn't that a pleasant thought? But isn't
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that part of why we come to church? Because we
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realize that we are sinners. We realize that
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we are messed up and we need a savior. So it's
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a good place to think about it. But what are
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the places of sin in your life that Jesus is
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calling you to grieve today? Are there places
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in your life with your sin, whether it's... pattern
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of outward sin, whether it's a thought pattern
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or a pattern of desire in your heart, is there
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a sin maybe that you've become too comfortable
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with, that you think, you know, yeah, you know,
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I kind of, I do that every now and then, but
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like how bad is that? Because part of the gospel
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prick of repentance is us being soft in our hearts
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towards that sin and not being comfortable with
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it. As one of the Puritans said, to be killing
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sin, or else it'll kill you, right? That we need
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to be able to bring to God our hearts, and to
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say, God, I need your help with this. I need
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your forgiveness. Don't leave me where I am,
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but also lift up my eyes to you and to the reality,
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Jesus, of your blood and righteousness that is
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given for me that is my only hope. What are the
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places of sin in your heart? Maybe that you become
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comfortable with the Jesus is instead calling
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you to grieve. It might be really deep, persistent
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patterns of sin that you invite someone else
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into. It might also be the awareness of situations
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where you've just become too comfortable with
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it, that pops up in your everyday life, and it
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could be a great check. You need to ask if your
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marriage, your spouse, or a roommate, or someone
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who is in your life a lot, Hey, where am I comfortable
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with my sin? Where am I, when you're bringing
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things up to me that you notice, where am I hard
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-hearted and reactive? I'm glad I never do that
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as a husband. Glad I never that way with my wife
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when she points out my sin. But where, where
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are you like that? And where is Jesus calling
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you to turn from that sin and instead to look
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away from yourself and to embrace the comfort
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of his forgiveness? I wonder what difference
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it could make to think about the cultures that
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y 'all create, the communities that y 'all create,
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and that all of our churches create, if our churches
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could grow more as places where we openly talked
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about, you know, this was the sin I was dealing
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with last week, or last night, or even this morning.
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That as we have, as good Southern people, the
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banter about Clemson football, or in Charlotte
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we banter about, a lot of people who like Clemson
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football in Charlotte, by the way, as you probably
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know, the rain is extended across South and North
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Carolina, but we banter about sports, we banter
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about the weather. What could it look like for
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us to more openly talk with each other about
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our sin, so that we can point each other to our
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savior, and so that we can move towards each
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other as we struggle and we fall, so we can mourn
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our sin together. I think it's one of the coolest
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opportunities I've gotten as a pastor in campus
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ministry sometimes is both to sit with people
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in what's really hard and really sad that has
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happened to them and outside of them, but also
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to sit with people who are really sad about their
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sin and to point them to the good news of the
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forgiveness of Jesus as they look to that. And
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that's the invitation to you and to me today,
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as you are convicted of your sin, to really grieve
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it. This is not the way that it's supposed to
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be. It's not God's best for us. We have an even
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greater Savior than your sin or my sin, who lived
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the perfect life that you and I did not live,
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who looked at the world around him, who looked
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at the temptations of the devil, and instead
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trusted in the good word of his Heavenly Father,
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and never fail. never fails, but he offers his
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blood and his righteousness to you and to me.
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Will you talk to God about your sin? As you grieve
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your sin, will you look away from yourself to
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the hope and to the power of Jesus and to his
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forgiveness? Will you grieve your sin? Will you
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lament your sin with Jesus? Will y 'all do that
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with each other? The next invitation we see is
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an invitation to lament brokenness with Jesus.
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To lament brokenness with Jesus. Brokenness encompasses
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a wider lens, the way that often as an outgrowth
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of sin, yes, but the way that things are not
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the way that they're supposed to be. They're
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not the way that creation was originally intended
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to be. And we think of this, if you follow the
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news at any point, and I hope you detox the news
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to the extent that you can, but so many stories
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in the news, while there are great things in
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the world that are not reported, So often the
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things we hear about and the things that you
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and I experience at our jobs, with our neighbors,
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looking at our communities, are things not being
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the way that they're supposed to be. You look
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at government, you look at business, you look
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at education, you talk to someone down the street,
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and it's the trickle trickle of so many stories
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of brokenness, of things being bent, of people
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abusing their power, of people being hurt. and
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not only culturally, but we look at the situations
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that so many of you and so many people travel
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through, right, with illness, with chronic disease,
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with physical maladies and hardships. We scan
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the globe, the stories of suffering, of people
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being in dire poverty. There's so much loss throughout
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our world that it can be easy for us to just,
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want to try to block it out. There's a reality
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in which we can only process so much of it. But
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you look at the minister of Jesus, and he did
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not stay an arm's length from suffering. Even
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though Jesus had all power, all dignity, all
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glory in and of himself, as Paul talks about
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in Philippians 2, he didn't account equality
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with God, something to be held onto. But he emptied
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himself for you and for me coming into our world
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of suffering and sadness and brokenness as he
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comes and you see throughout the ministry of
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Jesus that he Moves towards those who are poor
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towards those who are outcasts towards those
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who are disabled towards those who are dying
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As we'll get into later those who have died that
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Jesus does not hold himself in an arm's length
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to our pain but instead he enters into it. And
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because Jesus enters into it, he offers us the
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comfort to be able to engage the pain of your
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suffering and my suffering and the suffering
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of the world around us. How do you respond to
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the deep pain that's in your life? How do you
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respond to the place, whether it's a thread of
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persistent suffering, of being hurt by someone,
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whatever that thread is in your life, in your
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story of deep hurt and deep unease of experiencing
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this is not the way that it should be, what do
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you do with it? Sometimes I think we can try
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to numb out our pain. Are there ways that, someone,
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one author talked about the difference between
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taking a break, from our pain and our suffering
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and numbing out that, you know, maybe taking
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a break, a little escape is, you know, one glass
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of wine versus when I've had five or six glasses
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of wine to numb out. Story, you know, with a
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lot of younger people maybe is the trite example
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of, well, I'm going to watch one show versus
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I'm going to binge watch a whole season of a
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show. Sometimes that can be numbing. But what
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does that look like for you? Are there places
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you go to instead of God? to receive comfort
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for your pain. And we can think about with the
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reality of our need for rest, especially depending
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on the season of suffering that you might be
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in, it's good to take a break to get renewed
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from that pain. But the numbing invites us just
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to kind of push the pain down. And we can't actually
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bring it out for healing. And what Jesus is saying,
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instead of Looking to other places for your comfort
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and for your hope as you grieve as you lament
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Your suffering and things not being the way that
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they're supposed to be What could it look like
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for you? To lament with Jesus to bring your suffering
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To bring what is weighing you down to Jesus and
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to his comfort? There's such a beautiful opportunity
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is As Peter was praying the pastoral prayer for
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the opportunity as believers to one another,
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each other, to look out for each other, to bear
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each other's burdens and cares. It's such a great
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opportunity of the body of Christ as we share
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the things that weigh us down. So often that
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is when God speaks his word of comfort to us
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is through other believers. Is there something
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weighing you down that you need to share with
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someone else to be able to receive more of God's
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comfort? for you through his people. As it came
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up earlier in the service, it's always cool when
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there's these providential connections, right?
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Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1, praise be to
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the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
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the father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
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who comforts us in all our troubles. Isn't that
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amazing? He comforts you and me in our troubles?
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Don't take it for granted. The God of the universe.
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wants to comfort you in your troubles. But even
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more than that, he doesn't waste the troubles,
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but what does he say? So that we can comfort
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those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves
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receive from God. That one of the beauties is
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you process where you've been and what God has
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done in your life is that even if somebody doesn't
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have the same situation of suffering and loss
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or hardship or sin struggle that you had, as
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you receive God's comfort for your pain, it frees
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you up more to share God's comfort with someone
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else in the midst of their pain. It's amazing
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how God works out all things for the good of
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those who love him and are called according to
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his purposes as we look to him and to his purposes,
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as we bring our pain and our sadness to him.
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The last thing we've seen is kind of the thing
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that I headlined with the opening illustration,
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right, is. the invitation to lament death with
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Jesus. To lament death with Jesus. Of course,
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some of the biggest wounds and feelings of loss
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and feelings of something is missing here or
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something really hurts in this room are the wounds
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of death, right? Some of the biggest wounds in
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the lives of the people that we live with and
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we want to share the good news of Jesus to. Paul
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calls death the last enemy, right? I think it's
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so beautiful as you look at the life and the
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ministry of Jesus, the story of the account of
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Jesus being moved by the death of his friend
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Lazarus in the Gospel of John, right? That even
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as Jesus knew that he was going to raise Lazarus
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from the dead, Jesus wept at the death of his
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friend. Jesus, even though he knew he was going
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to be the one who would finally defeat death
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in principle through his resurrection, who will
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return to finally erase the sting of death for
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the people of God for all eternity, that still,
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Jesus, as he encounters death, he weeps, he grieves
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that the loss is a loss, that this is not the
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way that things are supposed to be. And it's
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in light, of us being able to encounter those
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tears and that pain, that the glory of the resurrection
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is even greater. But it's only as we travel through
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the journey that the pain actually matters, that
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the loss actually matters. So like I asked you
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to do with your sin and with suffering, is there
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a loss in your life and your story that maybe
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Jesus is inviting you today? to bring to him
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for his healing, for his comfort. Is there a
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loss that you've experienced? Maybe God has given
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you a lot of healing from over the years, but
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that you still need to be able to talk about
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and to bring to other body of Christ people to
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experience their comfort. What might God be laying
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on your heart today with those wounds of loss
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and pain? Maybe you don't really have one of
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those on your mind today, but... This passage
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is a great opportunity as you think about grief
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and mourning to be able to ask yourself, are
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you ready to die? Are you ready either for the
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reality for all of us in this room is that either
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things will end when we die or Jesus comes back,
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whichever happens first. And this beatitude in
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the wisdom of Jesus invites us to ask ourselves,
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are we ready for that? And can we say, that our
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only comfort in life and in death, as we face
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the reality of the uncertainty of our lives,
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the uncertainty of the world around us, is in
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Jesus Christ, in his blood, in his righteousness
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given for you. Wherever you might have been with
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loss, wherever you might be with the fear of
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death, where is God calling you today? To bring
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that to Jesus, to know his comfort, to know his
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power, that he comes and he says, I am the resurrection
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and the life. As we land this beatitude, it invites
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us to look to the triune God, to look to the
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one God who is three, the three who is one. To
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him alone is the consoler of your heart and mine.
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We see the different persons of the Trinity work
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in different ways to comfort the people of God.
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As Paul has already said in 2 Corinthians 1,
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you have a father who is the father of all mercies.
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To look to him. for your sadness over your sin,
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your suffering, your loss. Jesus, the eternal
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son made man, is the man of sorrows who bore
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our grief and our sadness and is yet the one
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who is the resurrection and the life. The Holy
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Spirit is the counselor, the comforter, who comes
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to guide and to console you and me, the people
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of God. The one who Paul says in Romans 8 helps
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us to pray. When in the midst of our sin and
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our suffering, we don't even know what to pray,
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but God gives grace upon grace to come alongside
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of us, even when you don't know what to do. And
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I've asked you questions to consider on your
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heart as you respond to life, but the beauty
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of God is that God comes alongside of you and
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me to comfort us, to console us, and to guide
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us, even when we don't know what to do. And what
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he invites you to do, even if you don't know
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what to do today, even if you can't think. of
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what the next step of faith is, is to cast yourself
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on this God, to cast yourself on this living
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and reigning and returning Jesus who says, blessed
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are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
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Will you look away from yourself? Will you look
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away from your circumstances? Will you give yourself
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and your circumstances to God, looking to him
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and to his comfort in Jesus and Jesus alone?
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Please pray with me.