Blessed are the Meek | Sermon on Matthew 5:5 by Pastor Colin Smith | Definition of Meekness

well would you open your Bible please at Matthew in chapter 5 the words of the Lord Jesus blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth Matthew chapter 5 and verse 5 we're continuing our series on the Beatitudes and we're really asking two questions of each of them first what is Christ calling us to here what is it that Jesus is saying what is it that we are to pursue and then secondly we're asking the question how is it then that we can pursue what Jesus Christ is calling us to and today we're coming to the third beatitude in our series and we're asking the first of these two questions today what is Christ calling us to when he says blessed are the meek now I wonder what comes to your mind when you hear the word meek a person who is soft-spoken a person maybe with a limp handshake a person who is easily pushed over and does not seem to have terribly much spine perhaps I know one thing that comes to my mind immediately is the the line that was written by Charles Wesley who wrote a hymn that was called gentle Jesus meek and mild are you familiar with that him some of you may have sung it when you were younger and and putting the word meek and mild together is is really quite a combination it seems to convey the idea of being weak maybe of being limp certainly of lacking strength I wonder why Wesley used the word mild I suspect it is because he was trying to find something that rhymes with child and that's not terribly easy to come up with but but you know a mild curry is one that is not very strong and probably not worth eating I mean what's the point in having a curry if you're going to have it and so we get this idea in our mind of gentle Jesus meek and mild and at least for guys who like to watch football this doesn't sound like the sort of thing that we're likely to want to go after but we have been discovering that each of these Beatitudes is a fountain of blessing the Jesus is telling us that there are certain things that we should go after in our lives at any cost at any price and that we should get as much of them into our own lives as we possibly can and he's telling us that one of them is meekness so when I began getting really serious about trying to get on the inside of what Jesus is saying here some weeks ago earlier in the summer preparing for this series I just I asked myself the question what do I think Jesus is referring to here when he says blessed are the meek and it wasn't long before I came to the conclusion that I I really had all kinds of confused ideas and my mind that were to do with weakness more than meekness and you're probably in the same place so I want us to do a kind of intentional reset of the mind with regards to what Jesus is speaking about here I want you to see today that far from being weakness what Jesus Christ is calling us to here is one of the toughest things in all of the world indeed something that is only possible by the Grace and the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer coming to the conclusion that I did not know clearly what Jesus meant here really launched me on a journey to try and discover what Jesus was speaking about and that is the journey of discovery that has been very rich and profoundly challenging for me that I want to share with you today and then next week the journey began with Matthew Henry a famous commentator from a past generation who wrote a book entitled the quest for meekness and quietness of spirit the Ted the quest for meekness and quietness of spirit and Matthew Henry points out that in Latin the meek person was called mansueta s' mansueta that's the latin term that was used for a person who is meek and he pointed out that this term is made up of two distinct words 1 the word Manu which of course relates to the hand manual and the other suitors which simply means used to and so Matthew Henry points out that this word literally means from its latin root used to the hand and therefore calls to mind really the breaking in as it were off of animals or creatures that are wild by Nature now that immediately sets a new direction for the mind in terms of understanding what meekness is really all about because the Bible speaks about our fallen human nature as as having the characteristic of wild animals so that in the in the Old Testament for example you find God saying about his own people that they are like a wild donkey or like a camel that is wandering around in in the desert untamed not a very flattering a description but you'll find that in Jeremiah and chapter 2 now matthew henry draws this conclusion he says man's corrupt nature has made him like a wild donkey but the grace of meekness when that gets dominion in the soul it alters the temper it brings the soul to hand and it submits the soul to management now that really began to get my mind going wait a min so meekness is the means by which God is going to team the distempers that are in the Fallen soul bring it to hand subdue its wildness and place this troubled heart under a proper management used to the hand so meekness then is about the teaming of the temper it is about the subduing of the assertive self it is about the calming of the passions it is about the managing of the impulses of your heart and of your life bringing order out of the chaos that otherwise exists in a human soul so um think about this I mean you go to work imagine this situation some of you you think this is doesn't take any imagination at all you go to work and let's say you're serving in a company where where one of the partners is self-opinionated and the guy is overbearing and he's always throwing his weight around he's short-tempered with the staff and he's demanding and he's always insisting on his own way whatever those a partner's meeting is always going to be his way and so forth and so on this man is not a happy man you can see that there's a turmoil there's a there's a frustration that is going on within his own soul and and what happens you see it in meetings you see it around the water cooler when when you pass that this sort of spills out on to people who are working around him and describing the most common experience of of life that you may see in a school in a university in a in a workplace in a home and in a family think about a horse a horse that has not yet been broken and it bucks and it kicks and it's out there in the field and when someone gets near to it it always resists the bit and it always resists the bridle it's not to the hand you see it's tempers have not yet been subdued but but when it gets used to the hand well then it has a point then it has a dignity then it becomes useful this horse that is now used to the hand that is Brooke and this is what meekness is all about and it is of huge importance the animal is at peace the animal is altogether different from the unbroken horse that was out there in the field and no one could get anywhere near now you see what the Bible is sing Jeremiah chapter two Israel is like a wild donkey while we're just changing the picture a little bit by Nature we're all like the unbroken horse and what that means is that we resist the hand of God and we kick out against him and as long as we're fighting God there there isn't a peace that we experience in ourselves and as long as there's not a peace that we experience in ourselves the turmoil that is inside of us is spilling out into other folks within our family and perhaps in the church and then the workplace and so forth and and so on Karen and I would away last weekend in in Iowa stayed a couple of nights in a hotel hotel was very full on the Saturday night Sunday morning we're in what was a fairly small lift coming down to the ground floor the lift was absolutely packed and on the second floor the lift stopped I guess someone had pushed the Bell there was one man who was standing there and he was waiting for the lift the thing's absolutely full and when the door opened and he saw there was no room for himself in his luggage he started cursing and swearing and oh maybe he was late for a plane maybe everything had gone wrong for him already that morning who knows what burdens he was carrying but the turmoil that was within was just pouring out and you don't need me to describe this any further this is life without meekness we we slide into an internal conflict of soul that begins to manifest itself in in short tempered Ness in anger frustration sometimes bitterness resentment turmoil but what is meekness to meekness comes the temper it subdues the soul it it it comes the passion it brings order out of the chaos and the turmoil that otherwise is going to tear us apart through the course of the day and it's going to spill out into in destructive ways into the lives of other people who are around us know when I got to the place of seeing our that's what meekness is now it begins to make sense as to why Jesus says this is supremely blessed now I begin to understand why this too far from being a sort of weak caveat that's sort of you know a lesser beatitude in the lineup while this too is something that I must go after and get as much as I possibly can of this in my life this is what I need and without it I'll find myself in an unending kind of a turmoil so meekness comes the passions that otherwise will be destructive both inside and and around Thomas Watson puts it this way he says by Nature the heart is like a troubled sea casting forth the form of anger and wrath now meekness he says calms the passions it sits as a moderator in the soul quietly giving cheque to its distempered motions I say that's what meekness is I want to get as much as I possibly can of this into this otherwise very fractured soul Spurgeon has five words that he uses to describe what meekness involves he says meekness is to be humble gentle patient forgiving and contented it's not a beautiful array is a one of these things that you do not want more of in your life to be meek is to be humble it is to be gentle it is to be patient it is to be forgiving it is to be contented and what that means is deliverance is the way a weakness is the way in which God delivers us from Pride and from harshness and from anger and from vengeance and from ambition so I want you to see that Jesus is calling us to something very wonderful here remember we're taking each of these Beatitudes in two parts looking at what Jesus calls us to and then how we are to pursue it but you will never want to pursue this you will never feel oh I want to get more of this in my life unless and until you see what a beautiful thing it is and and what power it brings in in terms of the healing of the soul grow in meekness friend and you will gain control over anger meekness will come your passions you'll drive more easily as you grow in meekness and more safely to it will subdue your impulsiveness meekness is going to change the way that you speak it will give you control over that harsh word and over that edge that is so destructive to relationships growing meekness and you'll discover contentment you'll be reconciled to the position that you're in which may be a very difficult position the one that you're in but meekness will help you to accept the difficulties that are in your life as also under the hand of God and so meekness will help you to enjoy peace you can't get too much of this it's wonderful so meekness is is being used to the hand that image of the calming as it were the restraining the ordering the breaking even of of the wild animals so that it is brought to a Timnath used to the hand another way therefore of speaking about meekness and a word that's very important to grasp in relation to this is simply the word submission submission submission means very simply this again it's made up of two words it means that you take your mission and you place it under sub the mission of someone else sub mission I take the dream of my life I take the hope of my life I take everything that I want to be accomplished in my life and I say now Lord Jesus Christ because you are Lord everything that I've ever thought all goes under you my mission comes under your mission it's directed by your mission it's subject to it shaped by it determined by sub mission and that's what Christ calls us to here that is what a Christian does a Christian submits to God and Jesus says now the people who do this the people who are are meek they are blessed why because as they place all things in the hands of God so to their great astonishment as we'll see next time God places all things back into their hands and that is why Jesus says blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth Stahn assuring statement in the world of might is right the meek shall inherit the earth now now that we got our minds tuned in as it were to the frame of what this is about I want to give just this simple definition of meekness for you that I hope will be helpful and it's simply this that meekness is submitting to God's Word it is submitting to God's will and it is submitting to God's people the three parts of it meekness it has a god word and a people word dimension it involves submitting to God's Word submitting to God's will and it involves submitting to God's people for submitting to God's Word and you have that very clearly in James chapter one in verse 21 receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls in other words the evidence that a person really submits to God is simply this in the first place that we believe and we do what God says jesus said it's the person who hears my word and puts it into practice who is like the one who builds his house upon a rock and Friends a church where the Bible is taught clearly and valued highly is a wonderful place to be because it is through the Word of God that our lives are nourished and it is in this way that we grow but I have to tell you that a church for the Bible is highly valued and clearly taught is a dangerous place to be because every one of us is accountable for the doing of what we have from God and no one more so than the one who speaks and so this word comes to us with great power as we become used to the blessing of receiving the Word of God the question is how do you receive the Word of God how do I receive it week by week as I try to sit under it do I receive it with meekness in other words is it actually doing its work in the deep place of my soul or like the unbroken horse am I just talking about it and actually pushing it away see that the self-willed person comes to the Bible and they think like this well now this is what God says but of course I've got the right to disagree that's very much throughout our culture isn't it this may be what God says but I got my own line on what it means simply because the Bible says it doesn't mean that I have to do it I have my own life and it's my right to choose and you hear the unbroken horse in that spirit this may be what God says but right now it's not what I want or worse still this is what I want so it must be what God says and I'm going to do it anyway Jim says you are receiving the Word of God and here's the thing for which each of us is supremely accountable the way that we receive it and am I going to push the challenge of God's Word today away from me or am I going to say Lord whatever this meekness thing means as you teach it to me I'm gonna pursue it in my family I'm going to pursuit my work I'm going to seek to grow in it in my life that's what it means to receive the word with with meekness the the ability to flex according to the shaping influence of the Word of God in your life so that so that your life becomes like like soft wax and the Word of God actually makes an imprint that's visible in the days that lie ahead isn't that why we gather around the Word of God we don't come here simply to stuff our heads and be no different as a result so Jim says receive the Word of God with meekness submitting yourself to God's Word second part of what weakness means is very simply this it is submitting yourself to God's will submitting yourself to God's will now there are times in the life of every Christian believer and it happens often God will put you in places that you would not have chosen to be it will happen and it will keep happening maybe through a difficult circumstance of work and the family it be something difficult in the church or or in regards to to your health but but God puts you in a situation that you would not have chosen I would never have chosen to be facing this and what happens in that circumstance of course is that the flesh you live this Christian life in the flesh and and the flesh is always resisting God that's why the only thing that can be done with it is for it to be crucified unbelief begins to rise from your flesh the voice begins to say from somewhere oh this must mean that God does not love you after all because how could he possibly love you if he allowed this to happen and resentment can grow and envy can settle and why is it that she got that blessing that I so wanted why did I not get it in my life well what does meekness look like when God puts you in a place that you would not have chosen for yourself let me give it to you in a picture come with me to a garden it's late and it's dark a few men are lying asleep on the ground you go a little further and there is another man and his whole body is draped over a large rock and as you see him he's sweating profusely he's in an agony of soul and he says father if it is possible let this cup be taken from me and then he says nevertheless not what I will but your will be done frame that picture that's meekness in its very essence Christ submitting himself to the will of the Father at incalculable cost that's meekness and friends that is what Jesus is calling us to do blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth so I guess that raises the question have you become used to the hand of God upon your life you like the wild donkey that's still kicking and fighting against the call and the claim of Jesus Christ upon you all the turmoil that that brings like the unbroken horse you still resist that hand here's what meekness is it it submits to God's Word and it submits to God's will now there's one more thing here and it's very important indeed and it's this that there is also a human dimension a relational dimension between people to this whole matter of meekness it begins with submitting to God's Word and to his will but it includes submitting also to God's people and here I'm thinking particularly of Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 21 if you thought the first part was hard I promise you that this is even harder but Jesus says that this is where blessing lies this is where it is to be found and and it is through this that you will enter into further blessing down the line in your life and so it's a this is not something that we can bypass of huge importance now Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 21 Paul is describing in Ephesians 5 what it looks like when God's people are filled with the Holy Spirit and he identifies a number of evidences one is that they they sing to each other the singing of Psalms and of hymns and of spiritual songs one is when God's people are full of the Spirit they are always thankful they're always thanking God for everything in every way Paul Paul says and then he says there's something else that is an evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit and it's this Ephesians 5:21 God's people submitting to one another out of reverence for Jesus Christ and when you see that happening it is an evidence of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into the lives of people because it is not natural but it is also a wonderful place where blessing is found now by the way if you are not a member of a local church to whom do you submit it's a serious question how can you do what God calls you to do as a Christian in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 21 if you are not a committed member of some local church see meekness grows through the discipline of committed relationships the no other way for this to happen and this is God's gift to us through the body of Christ what happens is that self directed Christians autonomous Christians individualist Christians miss out on the blessing of meekness that Christ wants to bring into your life because it's simply not possible to develop it apart from the context of committed relationships and so if the pattern is for for you simply to to walk away every time someone upsets you how can you possibly grow in in meekness make this only happens when there is something upsetting and and you're able to respond in a way that reflects the Spirit of Christ now there's an important distinction of course to be made here between submitting to God's Word and God's will and submitting to God's people submitting to God's Word and God's will is unconditional there are no limits there are no boundaries upon it submitting to God's people that is different the the Apostle said on one occasion you remember we must we must obey God rather than men though they said that when they were forbidden to preach the gospel the normal pattern the normal pattern for healthy Christian relationships is that we submit to each other in the body of Christ and Christ calls us to this and meekness is formed out of the difficulty of doing this now Philippians puts it this way do nothing out of selfish ambition or out of vain conceit but in humility consider others more significant than yourself and what that means is simply this that I must listen to what others are saying and to what others think and I must do that and give weight to it even and especially when I feel very confident that I'm right that's true for all of us the huge importance now let me give to you some some practical snapshots of what this meekness actually looks like and I want to tie these to one or two actual incidences that you can read about and follow through in in the Bible because here you're seeing just how difficult it can be among the Lord's own people among people of faith think about meekness when you are opposed and here where I'm thinking particularly about the the meekness of Moses Bible says in numbers chapter 12 that Moses was very meek so it's an astonishing word and statement that is used in relation to - Moses you say now why does the Bible say that Moses was the best man on the face of the earth as it says in numbers chapter 12 and verse 3 well just think about what he had to endure I mean God calls this guy out of retirement to lead the people of Israel who had been slaves for 400 years and Moses at I mean what must it have been for Moses to lead the people of God what was the pressures have been on him in doing that work I can hardly begin to imagine it but by God's grace he leads them out of Egypt he leads them across the Red Sea they see miracles happening he brings them to Sinai when God makes a covenant with them now friends you would think that God's people would be grateful to Moses but if you know the Old Testament story you will know very well that that is not what happens instead we read this that the people grumbled against Moses and they said why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children I mean can you imagine believing people actually thinking that about Moses but they did and I don't know about you but I can well imagine what my flesh would be seeing in that kind of situation I'd be thinking like this I'd be saying now wait a minute you have never seen such blessing as you are seeing right now and if you can't see that I'm out of here my flesh would think like that under these circumstances all I hear is you mourning and complaining about what you do not like you were slaves you're surrounded by the blessing of God but Moses was not like that he was meek and so here's what he did he prayed for people who said the most astonishingly Scudder 'less things about him and then try and take this in he went up a mountain and he said Oh God if it was possible I would be happy for you to blot me out of your book in order that they should not be blotted out from your book that's meekness that's why the Old Testament says 1 anyone else on the face of the earth in Old Testament times it was quite as meek as that under that kind of provocation and ingratitude do you see now why far from meekness being a sort of brand of weakness this is something that is such a high calling that it is impossible for us apart from the Spirit of Christ that in dwelt Moses think about times when you are not so much opposed as provoked and I want you to think for just a moment with me about the meekness of David you can read about this in 2nd Samuel in chapter 16 we read a story there of a man by the name of shimmy what a wretched man that man must have been but he he was a pain in the neck is the only way that I can see it - King David maybe when you hear this story you'll think oh I can think about someone who's a pain in the neck in my life as well shimmy belongs to the house of Saul who was the first king of Israel he was Saul's man and what that meant was that even long after Saul was dead and gone and long after David had been anointed as the king of Israel this man shimmy had not one good thing to say about God's anointed David and we're told this in 2nd Samuel 16 and verse 5 this man shimmy he just cursed continually and he threw stones at David I mean can you imagine us throwing stones at the king of Israel and as he was cursing he said he said to David shouting from a distance of course he said get out get out you're worthless man this is what Jimmy used to shout and David had to put up with it well remember David was Israel's greatest king and yet here is this man who cannot see a good word about him and the Bible tells us about a bish I who was a good man and one of David's loyal men and she did not think that King David should have to put up with stuff like this and so you said to David and I love this phrase in the Bible he says why should this dead dog curse my lord the king why should this fellow be allowed to get away with Richard behavior like this and abyssion I said to David let me go and cut off his head and I wonder what your flesh would have said you're the king of Israel good idea bish I let's be done with him but not David a man of meekness leave him alone said David and let him curse which is what shimmy proceeded to do and I want you to get this picture in your mind of just reading from second samuel 16 verses 13 and 14 David and his men went on the road while shimmy went along the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went can you imagine walking with your loyal people you're the king of Israel and here's this man on the hillside he's shouting down all these curses and then it says this he ran along the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust you imagine that shimmy fling in dust and at the end of the journey we read this that the king and all the people who were with him arrived weary at the Jordan oh what a wretched journey with this guy throwing stood us every step of the way and he's one of God's people shimmy showed a extreme unjustifiable provocation towards the king of Israel and David puts up with him amazing Thomas Watson makes this penetrating comment he says how easily God could crush sinners and kick them into hell but he moderates his anger and here David points us to the grace that we see in the Lord Jesus Christ there's a third little snapshot just very quickly when you're disappointed this will be an experience that comes to you and here's the meekness of Paul 2nd Timothy chapter 4 and verse 16 sometimes we're disappointed because our expectations were unreasonably high for other people but surely after all the ministry that Paul had poured into the lives of so many people it would have been reasonable for him to expect that when he came to be tried in a court of law that would at least be one person who would come to his defense and he tells us in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 in verse 16 that that did not happen nobody came at my first offence nobody came to stand with me so where do you go from there I'm so disappointed and you can see how the beginnings of bitterness and all kinds of stuff could be lodged in the soul but but here's what Paul says he says may it not be held against them may it not be held against he prays for God's blessing on people who really had let him down that takes me to the last and it's simply this when you're injured and of course the meekness of our Lord Jesus Christ when he was reviled insulted cursed he did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threaten you think of these folks nailing him to the cross you think of these folks spewing out all their bile standing mocking him while he's there in agony and how with perfect justice our Lord Jesus Christ could have said from the cross you wait you wait but he moderates his justice with mercy and instead he says Father forgive them they do not know what they are doing that is meekness and you say how did he do that well here's how he did it Peter tells us he bore our sins in his body on the tree he absorbed it into himself and he did it so that we would die to sins and live to righteousness because by his wounds we have been healed and so here we have just a shining light into what meekness involves as it relates to other people it's going to involve the bearing of wounds it's going to involve the forgiving of injuries it's going to involve returning good for evil matthew henry says after laying out what meekness involves he says if this is christianity god help us if this is christianity god help us because he says we are called christians we name the name of the meek and the lowly Jesus but how few are actuated by the spirit or conformed to Christ example friends we live in the land of lawsuits where there has been such a loss of civility in public discourse and in conversation we live in the world of attack ads attack websites and what happens into the in the church creeps into what happens in the world creeps into the church and we desperately desperately need to rediscover the meekness to which Jesus Christ calls us here it is much easier to be like shimmy than it is to be like David but David has the Spirit of Christ and Jesus says blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth is that you that's what meekness is next week we're going to come back and look at how we pursue it and you'll know that it's going to be around this that we read in Matthew 11 Jesus says take my yoke upon you tie yourself to me learn of me for I am gentle meek and lowly in heart and then you'll find rest from your souls bind yourself to me crisis walk with me and here's what will happen you will find rest for your soul let's pray together they want to use just a brief prayer that I use often in my own life it's an old hymn and i've personalized it when I use it dear Lord and father of mankind forgive my foolish ways restore me in my rightful mind in pure life your service find and in deeper reverence praise drop you're still Jews of quietness till all my striving cease take from my soul the strain and the stress and let my ordered life confess the beauty of your peace Lord teach me this weak meekness and work it into the deepest places of my life for the glory of Jesus Christ in His name I pray

Channel: Unlocking the Bible

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Keywords: unlocking the bible, what is meekness, blessed are the meek, sermon on meekness, matthew 5:5, definition of meekness, meekness bible, meekness in the bible, what does the bible say, learn the bible, understanding the bible

Id: kuNRlCPjfOk

Length: 46min 29sec (2789 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 17 2012