July 23, 2025 • 26 mins
What does it truly mean to be merciful? In this powerful session on the fifth Beatitude—“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”—Hannah Silverberg leads us into a deeper understanding of how this seemingly simple statement holds profound implications for our spiritual lives and relationships.
She begins by addressing a common misunderstanding: the belief that we earn God’s mercy by showing mercy to others. Quoting Charles Spurgeon, she clarifies that the Beatitudes aren’t a list of salvation requirements but a description of the heart of someone already transformed by grace. Our ability to show mercy doesn’t qualify us for mercy—it flows from having already received it.
From there, the session unfolds around three vital truths about biblical mercy. First, mercy costs. It goes far beyond mere sympathy; it acknowledges real wrong and pain and chooses to bear the cost instead of demanding payback. Jesus modeled this perfectly—He taught about mercy knowing it would cost Him the cross. Likewise, our mercy may cost us emotionally, relationally, or materially. But it never compromises God’s holiness. As Hannah notes, “To be passive to sin that will send people to hell is not godly mercy—it’s fear of man. And to be passionate against sin and not brokenhearted for the sinner is not godly justice—it’s pride.”
Second, mercy heals. It doesn’t just bring peace to the person we forgive—it also brings freedom to our own hearts. When we release bitterness, we open space for God’s healing to take root. Through powerful real-life examples—including courtroom moments where families forgive the very people who took their loved ones—Hannah shows how mercy can break cycles of pain and set both the wounded and the wrongdoer on a path to healing.
Finally, mercy transforms. Looking at the life of Peter—from his proud declaration of loyalty to his devastating denial and ultimate restoration by Jesus—we see how mercy didn’t just forgive him, it changed him. Christ’s mercy took a broken, fearful man and transformed him into a bold apostle willing to die for the gospel. “The mercy of Christ transformed Peter,” Hannah reminds us, “and the mercy of Christ transforms us.”
This session concludes with the encouraging truth that we can never out-give God’s mercy. Every act of mercy we offer is rooted in what we’ve already received, and as we pour it out, God is faithful to fill us again.
Are you ready to experience mercy as more than a concept—as a powerful force that heals, restores, and reshapes your life? Come explore how receiving and giving mercy can deepen your walk with Christ and transform the way you respond to a broken world.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tyler Lynde (00:04):
How many of you would say that you are
characterized by being amerciful person?
Come on now.
Am I in the right room?
Okay, let me ask it like thishow many of you would like to be
characterized as being amerciful person?
Okay, very good, very good.
(00:24):
Well, we're going to learn somemore about that tonight and I'm
going to make a specialintroduction.
Tonight, we have a special guestthat's going to be speaking to
us and that is this young ladyright here.
Come on down.
So, those of you who don't knowher, this is my daughter,
hannah Silverberg, and Amy'sdaughter, our daughter, yeah,
(00:49):
and I feel like the father withJesus tonight.
This is my daughter, in whomI'm well pleased, and I mean
that and so really excited aboutwhat she's going to share with
us tonight, and it's important,it's really important.
So let's pray, we'll getstarted.
Thank you, father, for this time.
(01:13):
Thank you, lord, that you gavethis great sermon, and it's
something that we can learn fromand we also can practically
apply the things that you havetaught us in this sermon.
So we ask that you'd help ustonight to have ears to hear,
and not only to listen, but thatwe would be willing to obey
Lord.
It's the cry of all of ourheart tonight for us to become
merciful people, and so we askthat you'd open our eyes and our
(01:34):
hearts to that very truth.
Help Hannah as she communicatesthese things to us In Jesus'
name, amen.
Amen name.
Hannah Silverberg (01:44):
Amen, all right.
Well, hey everybody, how's itgoing?
I'm going to go ahead and startout.
I'm going to read the wholepassage, matthew 5, 1 through 12
.
We'll just kind of get thecontext and then we'll get into
things.
Okay?
So, seeing the crowds, he wentup on the mountain and when he
sat down, his disciples came tohim and he opened his mouth and
(02:06):
taught them, saying Blessed arethe poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for theyshall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hungerand thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, forthey shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, forthey shall receive mercy.
(02:27):
Blessed are the pure in heart,for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,for they shall be called sons of
God.
Blessed are those who arepersecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdomof heaven.
And blessed are you when othersrevile you and persecute you
and utter all kinds of evilagainst you, falsely on my
(02:48):
account.
Rejoice and be glad, for yourreward is great in heaven, for
so they persecuted the prophetswho were before you.
So we've been planning thisteaching, this Bible study for a
few six months now for thechurch, and I had a feeling my
dad was going to ask me to teachone of these sessions, mainly
(03:10):
because every time we talkedabout it he said you're going to
teach one of these sessions andso and I was always like, well,
that's so far away, we'll dealwith that then.
So when I saw his name pop upon my phone with the do you want
to teach on Blessed or theMerciful, I wasn't too surprised
.
But I was surprised at myreaction because my hesitation
(03:34):
wasn't to teaching butspecifically to teaching this
topic.
And I was surprised by thatbecause, honestly, after reading
that list, blessed or theMerciful feels kind of easy
right, compared to some of theother ones.
We're talking about persecutionand all of those things.
But the thing that made mehesitant about this one is, it
felt, a bit ominous Blessed arethe merciful, for they shall
(03:57):
receive mercy.
Well, what if I'm not merciful?
Right, what does that mean?
And really my hesitation withthat is it kind of sounded to me
at first hearing like I thoughtof the mercy of salvation.
It's like, well, if I'm notmerciful, is the Lord going to
be merciful to me, and so I wasreally.
I was like, okay, if I'mhesitant about this, that means
(04:20):
I need to dig into my theologyabout it and figure out what I
think and why I'm hesitating.
So I dug into studying and Ifound this quote by Charles
Spurgeon, and it's just so goodand I tried to take a little
snippet out of it.
But it's just Charles Spurgeon,you know what I mean, and so
it's a little bit of a longquote.
And I know I just startedtalking and I just read a long
(04:42):
passage of scripture and I'mgoing to read a semi long quote,
but I need you to lock in, okay, because we're theologians
tonight and we're going to leavefeeling so smart, studying
drill surgeon, you ready, allright?
You remember that at thecommencement of our homilies
upon this sermon on the Mount,we noticed that our Lord's
subject was not how we are to besaved, but who are saved.
(05:05):
He is not here describing theway of salvation at all that he
does in many other places but hehere gives up the signs and
evidences of the work of gracein the soul, so that we should
greatly err, if we should, thatwe must be merciful in order to
(05:32):
obtain mercy, any such legalnotion, which would be clean,
contrary to the entire currentof Scripture and directly
opposed to the fundamentaldoctrine of justification by
faith in Christ.
I ask you to notice that thesepersons are blessed already and
have obtained mercy already.
Long before they becamemerciful, god was merciful to
them, and before the fullpromise was given them, as in
(05:54):
our text, that they shouldobtain yet further mercy, they
had already obtained the greatmercy of a renewed heart which
had made them merciful.
That is clear from theconnection of the text.
Isn't that so good?
That just really puts to restthat idea, this wrestling of am
I trying to earn the Lord'sfavor?
(06:16):
Am I trying to earn his mercytoward me by my own actions?
Because that is the longinginside of all of us.
We want to control our ownsalvation.
Because that is the longinginside of all of us.
We want to control our ownsalvation right, which we want
to fight against the hand ofmercy of the Lord in our lives
in order to gain control of it.
And so we're just going toreject that idea of okay, I'm
trying to fight and prove to theLord that I deserve something
(06:39):
from him, and instead I'macknowledging that anything I
can do that is worth doing isbecause of the God who did it
all for me.
Praise God, which means also,there is more mercy that we can
obtain by being merciful.
This is a bonus mercy, right,and so this is even better, it's
(06:59):
even more fun.
So we've heard all of these.
Y'all heard all of theseteachings.
I listened to some of them onthe podcast and they were great,
but it's really leading up.
The Beatitudes are this journeyright?
This is the way of the redeemed, this is the way of Christ, and
so we're.
They all build on one another.
They're not apart from anything.
So throughout this journey,it's really been the emptying of
(07:23):
oneself we're setting.
We're being poor in spirit,recognizing our need, mourning
our sin and being comforted,being meek and kingdom focused,
and then being desperate forrighteousness.
All of things.
Things kind of build on eachother in our chain of
sanctification.
We start out our journey byemptying ourselves,
acknowledging and being grievedby our own sin, and then, from
(07:44):
that place, we can turn to theLord to seek righteousness,
desiring to be pleasing in hissight, and so then we're
hungering and we're thirstingfor righteousness.
We're seeking righteousness,and then the first thing he
tells us to do is to open ourheart and hands and be merciful
to one another.
This is really the first step,where we turn from inward to
(08:04):
outward, where other people area part of this journey that
we're on with the Lord, becausewe're not meant to be sanctified
alone.
So the Greek word for mercifulis elemones.
I'll try, that's the best I cando.
And it's also used in Hebrews 217 to highlight the gospel.
(08:28):
Therefore, he had to be made.
This is referring to Jesus.
Therefore, he had to be madelike his brothers in every
respect so that he might becomea merciful and faithful high
priest in the service of God tomake propitiation for the sins
of the people.
So this leads to our firstpoint about mercy.
Mercy costs.
(08:49):
When Jesus stood up and hetaught this sermon, he already
knew that for him, mercy meantthe cross, and he chose to teach
it anyway.
We have softened mercy in ourminds and tried to make it on
par with compassion or sympathy.
It's easier to excuse ourselvesfrom this calling that way
(09:13):
because we can say well, I'mjust more of a straightforward
person, a straight shooter orempathy isn't in my top five
strengths, so it's just not whoGod made me to be.
Well, yes, it is, and he'scalling us all to it.
If we decide that mercy issomething that we are naturally
(09:34):
inclined to, based onpersonality, then this walk of
sanctification is going to beway easier for some of us, and
some of us are completelyexcused for it from it.
All of us have things that aregoing to be easier and harder
for us in the walk of Christ,based on who he's made us to be,
because we're all madedifferently, in the image of God
, to reflect his character, andso, yes, maybe your nature
(09:58):
naturally reflects mercy easierthan other things, but that
doesn't mean that it's notsomething that needs to be
refined and balanced by the HolySpirit in your daily walk.
My daughter has been watchingthe VeggieTales Jonah movie
recently.
Has anyone seen the Jonah movie?
Yes, of course, a classic, andit's got a lot about compassion
(10:22):
and mercy in it.
And Pirate Paw Grape definesmercy as giving someone a second
chance, even when they don'tdeserve it.
This is the cost of mercy.
It's not mercy, if they didn'tdo something, if someone hasn't
done something to you, torequire you to hand it back to
them.
Right, and for those of us thatare justice, oriented mercy
(10:45):
feels like a tough pill toswallow.
Sometimes.
Oriented mercy feels like atough pill to swallow sometimes
because it can feel like we areallowing people off of the hook
instead of receiving instead ofthem receiving what they or what
we think we deserve.
Holiness is not the enemy ofmercy.
Legalism is To be merciful, isto acknowledge the wrong, to
(11:07):
count the cost and then todecide to take the hit ourselves
instead of handing it to theperson who offended us.
This is the gospel.
We are the ones who have sinnedagainst a holy God and that God
himself, in his loving kindness, counted the cost and took the
hit anyway.
(11:27):
Justice paid for with mercy.
Psalm 85, 10, says mercy andtruth are met together and
righteousness and peace havekissed each other.
Perhaps we fall on the otherside of mercy and justice and
shy away from justice as a whole, thinking it kind of cruel and
unkind.
Now I have two daughters and ifone of them decides that her
(11:53):
favorite pastime is going to betaking her sister's toys Could
go either way right now.
Honestly, they decide, okay,I'm going to take my sister's
toys all the time.
And I decide, okay, I want tobe a merciful mother.
So I am not going to correct,to discipline my child because I
want to be kind to her, so I'mnot going to step in in any way.
(12:15):
What's the problem with that?
This is it you can answer forreal?
Oh, the other child, right?
Or what about the child at theplayground?
Or what about anybody else?
You know, we can't raise peoplewith this expectation of I can
just snatch whatever I want,right?
Cs Lewis said that mercydetached from justice grows
(12:37):
unmerciful.
If we completely separate thisidea of mercy from justice, then
we end up in the same place.
Now I'm the one who is injuringmy other child because I am not
walking in my responsibility tocorrect.
But if I then go and disciplinemy child, who is wrong?
If the heart of impatience andannoyance, then I'm not walking
(13:02):
in mercy either.
Right, it's all about this.
Balance is in between.
We can't fall on just one sideor just the other.
All of the Christian walk islearning to walk in the rhythms
of grace, allowing the Lord toinform our steps instead of just
following a list of rules.
We cannot use God's call tomercy as a reason to turn the
other way in situations where weshould speak up.
(13:23):
So to summarize it to bepassive, to sin that will send
people to hell is not godlymercy, it is fear of man.
And to be passionate againstsin and not brokenhearted for
the sinner is not godly justice,it is pride.
Micah 6.8 says he has shown you, o mortal, what is good and
(13:48):
what does the Lord require ofyou?
To act justly and to love mercyand to walk humbly with your
God.
Our second point tonight ismercy heals.
When we go through painfulthings in life, when we are
betrayed or wronged or wounded,our natural inclinations tell us
(14:08):
to either batten down thehatches and hunker down, or to
lash back out at the person whohas wounded us.
We can see lots of examples inscripture of this.
Can you all think of any?
Nope, okay.
So uh, when I thought of was thewoman in John eight who is
caught in adultery and Jesusturns her.
(14:31):
She's ripped out of bed, she'sbrought in front of all of these
men.
They want to stone her andJesus turns her accusers away by
instructing those without sinto throw the first stone,
sending her away with mercy togo and sin no more.
He didn't allow her to continuein the sin that she was in.
He corrected her for her wrong,but he also didn't allow her,
(14:55):
he didn't just judge her withoutmercy.
He gave her the grace of asecond chance to make the right
choice, to turn away from thewrong.
Another example I thought ofwas the woman who poured perfume
on Jesus' feet and wiped themwith her hair.
She was forgiven much and soshe loved much.
To be merciful in the face ofour pain allows the Lord to be
(15:18):
our healer.
When we lay down our right toshake our fists in what we have
deemed to be righteous anger, wecan open our hands to be met
with grace and we obtain mercy.
Part of the healing of mercyand part of obtaining mercy when
we give it.
When we forgive others, we canlet go of that poison that lives
(15:40):
within our hearts, and theLord's mercy to us is healing in
that right.
Have you all seen those videos?
In the courtroom?
There's like two differentsides.
You can see where someone isfound guilty of a crime and the
family speaks to the offenderwho killed their family member,
whatever it may be, and they canspeak.
Some of them say, like youdeserve to rot in jail, you know
(16:00):
, and they really come afterthem and because they're wounded
and they're hurt, this persondid the wrong thing against them
and they want justice to beserved in that way.
But have you also seen thevideos of family members who
have been wronged, who have hadthese horrible things happen as
a result of someone else's sin?
Then look at them and say whatyou did was wrong, but I'm a
(16:20):
Christian and God told me toforgive you.
And the difference not just inthat courtroom, not for the
criminal, but for the personsaying those words when we can
hand things over to the Lord,we're not only allowing the
Lord's mercy to be exemplifiedin our mercy towards other
people and them being healed,but we're also opening up our
(16:41):
own hearts for the Lord to healus.
That's part of the mercy thatwe can obtain when we are
merciful.
And sometimes the thing thatkeeps us from showing mercy
isn't just if we're reallyhonest.
It's not just the hurt that'sdone to us from other people or
from circumstances, but it'sanger at the Lord for allowing
it to happen.
(17:01):
Sometimes our fight againstmercy is really our fight
against the God, who we thinkwasn't merciful, but we can know
the truth of his character andthe truth of his word and we can
rely on him and trust that.
Okay, lord, I don't understandthis, but I am going to open my
hands anyway and I am going totrust that you will reveal
(17:25):
yourself to me.
The lie of the enemy is that wejust need to get to a place of
neutrality.
Right, if I can just get to aplace where I don't care about
this so much anymore, where hedoesn't get me all fired up
anymore, then I'm good and God'sgood with me, because I'm not
angry at them anymore.
But the truth is thatneutrality is a lie and to not
(17:46):
be merciful is to be merciless.
We can either walk in abundantmercy, knowing that we are
bookended by the grace given tous by the Lord, or we can
withhold from those around us,poisoning ourselves and
withholding mercy from ourselveswhen we choose I'm not going to
give mercy to that personbecause I think they deserve
(18:06):
justice then we are the ones whoare stopping up the flow of
mercy from the Lord to ourselves.
Holding on to our own woundscan poison us.
Where mercy heals, mercytransforms.
When I was studying this, I keptbeing drawn to the story of
Peter, especially at the LastSupper and throughout the story
(18:27):
of the crucifixion.
And Peter is so confident atthe Last Supper and he's saying
I will never turn away from you.
Lord, like, let's go get him.
And even in the garden he pullsout a sword and he comes, he's,
he's guns ablaze and he isready to go.
But Peter.
But Jesus told Peter right.
And he said you're going todeny me three times before the
(18:47):
rooster crows.
And so I think that's partiallywhy Peter's so ready to go.
He's got something to prove outhere tonight, right?
And then things don't go theway that he thought that they
would.
You know, jesus says no, that'snot how we're doing things.
Jesus shows mercy to the Romansoldier coming to crucify him,
(19:13):
coming to take him away, and heheals him anyway.
And so then they go.
In Luke 22, 61 says the Lordturned and looked at Peter after
Peter had denied him for thethird time.
So they go, and Peter is kindof hanging back.
He doesn't want to beassociated with Jesus because he
doesn't know how this is goingto go.
They're really outnumbered andJesus isn't letting him fight
and his strength is in his ownfist, so he doesn't want
anything to do with it, right?
And so he's standing out there.
Do you know this man?
No, I don't.
(19:34):
Do you know this man?
No, I don't.
Do you know this man?
No, I don't.
And the rooster crowed and itsays that, peter, can you
imagine this is the worst momentin human history.
This is leading up to thisright, the crucifixion of Jesus.
(19:54):
This is one of his very closestfriends.
Can you imagine being Peter andlooking in the eye of the
person you love the most, whohas loved you the most, who
knows you deeper than anyoneelse?
And you just denied them inthat moment than anyone else,
and you just denied them in thatmoment and Peter went out and
wept bitterly.
I can't imagine that shame andself-disgust and hatred after
(20:17):
that moment that Peter must havefelt.
And then three days of silenceand grief and knowing that you,
that he wasn't there.
John was the only one and theMarys were there at the cross
and none of the other discipleswere there.
And then in John's gospel, youknow, the women come back and
(20:38):
they say, hey, the tomb is empty, the savior is risen and Peter
and John take off in a foot raceto the tomb and it says that
John won the race, which is ahilarious fact to put in the
Bible.
Can you believe that?
The Lord let John put that inthere?
But I wonder, I wonder if Peterheld back that day on his run
to the cross, was he afraid tosee the God he had forsaken and
(21:02):
betrayed, the God that heboasted so proudly to?
I will never turn away from you, I'll be the one there with you
.
And then, that night, turnedaway.
And he knows that.
Jesus knows it too, becauseJesus looked at him.
And we've all felt that way onsome level, haven't we?
We have all known when we havewronged the Lord and instead of
(21:23):
running to him, we slow oursteps in our shame.
But a little while later, thedisciples went fishing and Jesus
appeared on the beach and hetold them one more time to cast
the net on the other side of theboat.
And Peter recognized Jesus andjumped into the water one more
time to get to Jesus, alwaysexuberant Peter, anxious for
(21:47):
Jesus, with his fear in the way,and the verses say so.
When they had eaten breakfast,jesus said to Simon Peter Simon,
son of Jonah, do you love memore than these?
And he said to them yes, lord,you know that I love you.
He said to him feed my lambs.
He said to him again a secondtime Simon, son of Jonah, do you
(22:08):
love me?
He said to him yes, lord, youknow that I love you.
And maybe Peter was grievedbecause he wanted the Lord to
believe him.
He was upset that Jesus keptasking, as if he wasn't giving
(22:36):
him the right answer.
And maybe Peter was grievedbecause he remembered it the
last time.
He'd been asked a questionthree times and he gave the
wrong answer that time.
And so he said to him Lord, youknow all things, you know that
I love you.
And Jesus said to him feed mysheep.
Most assuredly, I say to you,when you were younger you girded
(23:00):
yourself and walked where youwished, but when you are old,
you will stretch out your handsand another will gird you and
carry you where you do not wish.
And this he spoke, signifyingby what death he would glorify
God.
And when he had spoken this, hesaid to him follow me.
(23:20):
Jesus' mercy to Peter wasn'texcusing him, but it was meeting
him in his pain and healing himin that mercy.
That connection point Jesus soeasily and righteously could
have said get behind me, satan.
Once more to Peter he couldhave said you betrayed me, you
did not stand the test, you didnot walk in the light, I want
(23:41):
nothing to do with you as afollower.
And instead he said follow meand I have a job for you, and
one day for you.
And one day Peter given anotherchance, a bigger chance, and
one day he was not the man whoturned away and denied
(24:02):
relationship with the Savior whowas led to the cross, but he
was the man led to the crossbecause of his relationship with
Jesus, because he would notdeny it, and he was crucified
upside down because he deemedhimself unworthy to die the way
his Savior did.
The mercy of Christ transformedPeter, and the mercy of Christ
(24:25):
transforms us, who we werebefore unmerciful, harsh,
self-centered, unmerciful, harsh, self-centered slaves to sin.
We have been called to a higherstandard and we have been given
the ability to be transformedby the mercy of the gospel.
And our last point tonight isthat mercy triumphs.
(24:46):
We will never be more mercifulthan the Lord will be.
You can never be more mercifulto someone else who is asking
something of you that you do notwant to give.
Your mercy to them will neverbe greater than the Lord's mercy
to you, because it's his mercythat you're spending anyway.
You couldn't come up with it onyour own strength if you tried,
(25:06):
and just like we see in theparable of the talents.
We who are faithful with littlewill be given more to be
faithful with.
Blessed are the merciful, forthey will obtain mercy.
And let's pray, lord.
We just thank you that you arethe merciful King who has chosen
(25:30):
to bestow your mercy on eachand every one of us.
And, lord, we ask yourforgiveness for the times that
each and every one of us haveshied away from offering mercy
to one another, when we wouldhave held our own sense of
justice and righteousness to bedearer and more important than
(25:51):
your call to pick up our crossevery day and to walk in the way
of the faithful.
Lord, I just ask that you woulddo what your word promised.
We know you will.
Lord, we ask that you wouldbestow mercy upon us, that you
would open our eyes to the waysthat we are withholding and that
you would enable us, with theability to be merciful to those
(26:14):
around us, to live with openhands and open hearts, and with
mercy that dwells in our heartsand our minds as much as it does
in our mouths and hands.
Lord, we thank you that you arefaithful and just to do what
you have promised To you.
The only right.
God be the glory, amen.
How many of you would say that you are
characterized by being amerciful person?
Come on now.
Am I in the right room?
Okay, let me ask it like thishow many of you would like to be
characterized as being amerciful person?
Okay, very good, very good.
(00:24):
Well, we're going to learn somemore about that tonight and I'm
going to make a specialintroduction.
Tonight, we have a special guestthat's going to be speaking to
us and that is this young ladyright here.
Come on down.
So, those of you who don't knowher, this is my daughter,
hannah Silverberg, and Amy'sdaughter, our daughter, yeah,
(00:49):
and I feel like the father withJesus tonight.
This is my daughter, in whomI'm well pleased, and I mean
that and so really excited aboutwhat she's going to share with
us tonight, and it's important,it's really important.
So let's pray, we'll getstarted.
Thank you, father, for this time.
(01:13):
Thank you, lord, that you gavethis great sermon, and it's
something that we can learn fromand we also can practically
apply the things that you havetaught us in this sermon.
So we ask that you'd help ustonight to have ears to hear,
and not only to listen, but thatwe would be willing to obey
Lord.
It's the cry of all of ourheart tonight for us to become
merciful people, and so we askthat you'd open our eyes and our
(01:34):
hearts to that very truth.
Help Hannah as she communicatesthese things to us In Jesus'
name, amen.
Amen name.
Hannah Silverberg (01:44):
Amen, all right.
Well, hey everybody, how's itgoing?
I'm going to go ahead and startout.
I'm going to read the wholepassage, matthew 5, 1 through 12
.
We'll just kind of get thecontext and then we'll get into
things.
Okay?
So, seeing the crowds, he wentup on the mountain and when he
sat down, his disciples came tohim and he opened his mouth and
(02:06):
taught them, saying Blessed arethe poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for theyshall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hungerand thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, forthey shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, forthey shall receive mercy.
(02:27):
Blessed are the pure in heart,for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,for they shall be called sons of
God.
Blessed are those who arepersecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdomof heaven.
And blessed are you when othersrevile you and persecute you
and utter all kinds of evilagainst you, falsely on my
(02:48):
account.
Rejoice and be glad, for yourreward is great in heaven, for
so they persecuted the prophetswho were before you.
So we've been planning thisteaching, this Bible study for a
few six months now for thechurch, and I had a feeling my
dad was going to ask me to teachone of these sessions, mainly
(03:10):
because every time we talkedabout it he said you're going to
teach one of these sessions andso and I was always like, well,
that's so far away, we'll dealwith that then.
So when I saw his name pop upon my phone with the do you want
to teach on Blessed or theMerciful, I wasn't too surprised
.
But I was surprised at myreaction because my hesitation
(03:34):
wasn't to teaching butspecifically to teaching this
topic.
And I was surprised by thatbecause, honestly, after reading
that list, blessed or theMerciful feels kind of easy
right, compared to some of theother ones.
We're talking about persecutionand all of those things.
But the thing that made mehesitant about this one is, it
felt, a bit ominous Blessed arethe merciful, for they shall
(03:57):
receive mercy.
Well, what if I'm not merciful?
Right, what does that mean?
And really my hesitation withthat is it kind of sounded to me
at first hearing like I thoughtof the mercy of salvation.
It's like, well, if I'm notmerciful, is the Lord going to
be merciful to me, and so I wasreally.
I was like, okay, if I'mhesitant about this, that means
(04:20):
I need to dig into my theologyabout it and figure out what I
think and why I'm hesitating.
So I dug into studying and Ifound this quote by Charles
Spurgeon, and it's just so goodand I tried to take a little
snippet out of it.
But it's just Charles Spurgeon,you know what I mean, and so
it's a little bit of a longquote.
And I know I just startedtalking and I just read a long
(04:42):
passage of scripture and I'mgoing to read a semi long quote,
but I need you to lock in, okay, because we're theologians
tonight and we're going to leavefeeling so smart, studying
drill surgeon, you ready, allright?
You remember that at thecommencement of our homilies
upon this sermon on the Mount,we noticed that our Lord's
subject was not how we are to besaved, but who are saved.
(05:05):
He is not here describing theway of salvation at all that he
does in many other places but hehere gives up the signs and
evidences of the work of gracein the soul, so that we should
greatly err, if we should, thatwe must be merciful in order to
(05:32):
obtain mercy, any such legalnotion, which would be clean,
contrary to the entire currentof Scripture and directly
opposed to the fundamentaldoctrine of justification by
faith in Christ.
I ask you to notice that thesepersons are blessed already and
have obtained mercy already.
Long before they becamemerciful, god was merciful to
them, and before the fullpromise was given them, as in
(05:54):
our text, that they shouldobtain yet further mercy, they
had already obtained the greatmercy of a renewed heart which
had made them merciful.
That is clear from theconnection of the text.
Isn't that so good?
That just really puts to restthat idea, this wrestling of am
I trying to earn the Lord'sfavor?
(06:16):
Am I trying to earn his mercytoward me by my own actions?
Because that is the longinginside of all of us.
We want to control our ownsalvation.
Because that is the longinginside of all of us.
We want to control our ownsalvation right, which we want
to fight against the hand ofmercy of the Lord in our lives
in order to gain control of it.
And so we're just going toreject that idea of okay, I'm
trying to fight and prove to theLord that I deserve something
(06:39):
from him, and instead I'macknowledging that anything I
can do that is worth doing isbecause of the God who did it
all for me.
Praise God, which means also,there is more mercy that we can
obtain by being merciful.
This is a bonus mercy, right,and so this is even better, it's
(06:59):
even more fun.
So we've heard all of these.
Y'all heard all of theseteachings.
I listened to some of them onthe podcast and they were great,
but it's really leading up.
The Beatitudes are this journeyright?
This is the way of the redeemed, this is the way of Christ, and
so we're.
They all build on one another.
They're not apart from anything.
So throughout this journey,it's really been the emptying of
(07:23):
oneself we're setting.
We're being poor in spirit,recognizing our need, mourning
our sin and being comforted,being meek and kingdom focused,
and then being desperate forrighteousness.
All of things.
Things kind of build on eachother in our chain of
sanctification.
We start out our journey byemptying ourselves,
acknowledging and being grievedby our own sin, and then, from
(07:44):
that place, we can turn to theLord to seek righteousness,
desiring to be pleasing in hissight, and so then we're
hungering and we're thirstingfor righteousness.
We're seeking righteousness,and then the first thing he
tells us to do is to open ourheart and hands and be merciful
to one another.
This is really the first step,where we turn from inward to
(08:04):
outward, where other people area part of this journey that
we're on with the Lord, becausewe're not meant to be sanctified
alone.
So the Greek word for mercifulis elemones.
I'll try, that's the best I cando.
And it's also used in Hebrews 217 to highlight the gospel.
(08:28):
Therefore, he had to be made.
This is referring to Jesus.
Therefore, he had to be madelike his brothers in every
respect so that he might becomea merciful and faithful high
priest in the service of God tomake propitiation for the sins
of the people.
So this leads to our firstpoint about mercy.
Mercy costs.
(08:49):
When Jesus stood up and hetaught this sermon, he already
knew that for him, mercy meantthe cross, and he chose to teach
it anyway.
We have softened mercy in ourminds and tried to make it on
par with compassion or sympathy.
It's easier to excuse ourselvesfrom this calling that way
(09:13):
because we can say well, I'mjust more of a straightforward
person, a straight shooter orempathy isn't in my top five
strengths, so it's just not whoGod made me to be.
Well, yes, it is, and he'scalling us all to it.
If we decide that mercy issomething that we are naturally
(09:34):
inclined to, based onpersonality, then this walk of
sanctification is going to beway easier for some of us, and
some of us are completelyexcused for it from it.
All of us have things that aregoing to be easier and harder
for us in the walk of Christ,based on who he's made us to be,
because we're all madedifferently, in the image of God
, to reflect his character, andso, yes, maybe your nature
(09:58):
naturally reflects mercy easierthan other things, but that
doesn't mean that it's notsomething that needs to be
refined and balanced by the HolySpirit in your daily walk.
My daughter has been watchingthe VeggieTales Jonah movie
recently.
Has anyone seen the Jonah movie?
Yes, of course, a classic, andit's got a lot about compassion
(10:22):
and mercy in it.
And Pirate Paw Grape definesmercy as giving someone a second
chance, even when they don'tdeserve it.
This is the cost of mercy.
It's not mercy, if they didn'tdo something, if someone hasn't
done something to you, torequire you to hand it back to
them.
Right, and for those of us thatare justice, oriented mercy
(10:45):
feels like a tough pill toswallow.
Sometimes.
Oriented mercy feels like atough pill to swallow sometimes
because it can feel like we areallowing people off of the hook
instead of receiving instead ofthem receiving what they or what
we think we deserve.
Holiness is not the enemy ofmercy.
Legalism is To be merciful, isto acknowledge the wrong, to
(11:07):
count the cost and then todecide to take the hit ourselves
instead of handing it to theperson who offended us.
This is the gospel.
We are the ones who have sinnedagainst a holy God and that God
himself, in his loving kindness, counted the cost and took the
hit anyway.
(11:27):
Justice paid for with mercy.
Psalm 85, 10, says mercy andtruth are met together and
righteousness and peace havekissed each other.
Perhaps we fall on the otherside of mercy and justice and
shy away from justice as a whole, thinking it kind of cruel and
unkind.
Now I have two daughters and ifone of them decides that her
(11:53):
favorite pastime is going to betaking her sister's toys Could
go either way right now.
Honestly, they decide, okay,I'm going to take my sister's
toys all the time.
And I decide, okay, I want tobe a merciful mother.
So I am not going to correct,to discipline my child because I
want to be kind to her, so I'mnot going to step in in any way.
(12:15):
What's the problem with that?
This is it you can answer forreal?
Oh, the other child, right?
Or what about the child at theplayground?
Or what about anybody else?
You know, we can't raise peoplewith this expectation of I can
just snatch whatever I want,right?
Cs Lewis said that mercydetached from justice grows
(12:37):
unmerciful.
If we completely separate thisidea of mercy from justice, then
we end up in the same place.
Now I'm the one who is injuringmy other child because I am not
walking in my responsibility tocorrect.
But if I then go and disciplinemy child, who is wrong?
If the heart of impatience andannoyance, then I'm not walking
(13:02):
in mercy either.
Right, it's all about this.
Balance is in between.
We can't fall on just one sideor just the other.
All of the Christian walk islearning to walk in the rhythms
of grace, allowing the Lord toinform our steps instead of just
following a list of rules.
We cannot use God's call tomercy as a reason to turn the
other way in situations where weshould speak up.
(13:23):
So to summarize it to bepassive, to sin that will send
people to hell is not godlymercy, it is fear of man.
And to be passionate againstsin and not brokenhearted for
the sinner is not godly justice,it is pride.
Micah 6.8 says he has shown you, o mortal, what is good and
(13:48):
what does the Lord require ofyou?
To act justly and to love mercyand to walk humbly with your
God.
Our second point tonight ismercy heals.
When we go through painfulthings in life, when we are
betrayed or wronged or wounded,our natural inclinations tell us
(14:08):
to either batten down thehatches and hunker down, or to
lash back out at the person whohas wounded us.
We can see lots of examples inscripture of this.
Can you all think of any?
Nope, okay.
So uh, when I thought of was thewoman in John eight who is
caught in adultery and Jesusturns her.
(14:31):
She's ripped out of bed, she'sbrought in front of all of these
men.
They want to stone her andJesus turns her accusers away by
instructing those without sinto throw the first stone,
sending her away with mercy togo and sin no more.
He didn't allow her to continuein the sin that she was in.
He corrected her for her wrong,but he also didn't allow her,
(14:55):
he didn't just judge her withoutmercy.
He gave her the grace of asecond chance to make the right
choice, to turn away from thewrong.
Another example I thought ofwas the woman who poured perfume
on Jesus' feet and wiped themwith her hair.
She was forgiven much and soshe loved much.
To be merciful in the face ofour pain allows the Lord to be
(15:18):
our healer.
When we lay down our right toshake our fists in what we have
deemed to be righteous anger, wecan open our hands to be met
with grace and we obtain mercy.
Part of the healing of mercyand part of obtaining mercy when
we give it.
When we forgive others, we canlet go of that poison that lives
(15:40):
within our hearts, and theLord's mercy to us is healing in
that right.
Have you all seen those videos?
In the courtroom?
There's like two differentsides.
You can see where someone isfound guilty of a crime and the
family speaks to the offenderwho killed their family member,
whatever it may be, and they canspeak.
Some of them say, like youdeserve to rot in jail, you know
(16:00):
, and they really come afterthem and because they're wounded
and they're hurt, this persondid the wrong thing against them
and they want justice to beserved in that way.
But have you also seen thevideos of family members who
have been wronged, who have hadthese horrible things happen as
a result of someone else's sin?
Then look at them and say whatyou did was wrong, but I'm a
(16:20):
Christian and God told me toforgive you.
And the difference not just inthat courtroom, not for the
criminal, but for the personsaying those words when we can
hand things over to the Lord,we're not only allowing the
Lord's mercy to be exemplifiedin our mercy towards other
people and them being healed,but we're also opening up our
(16:41):
own hearts for the Lord to healus.
That's part of the mercy thatwe can obtain when we are
merciful.
And sometimes the thing thatkeeps us from showing mercy
isn't just if we're reallyhonest.
It's not just the hurt that'sdone to us from other people or
from circumstances, but it'sanger at the Lord for allowing
it to happen.
(17:01):
Sometimes our fight againstmercy is really our fight
against the God, who we thinkwasn't merciful, but we can know
the truth of his character andthe truth of his word and we can
rely on him and trust that.
Okay, lord, I don't understandthis, but I am going to open my
hands anyway and I am going totrust that you will reveal
(17:25):
yourself to me.
The lie of the enemy is that wejust need to get to a place of
neutrality.
Right, if I can just get to aplace where I don't care about
this so much anymore, where hedoesn't get me all fired up
anymore, then I'm good and God'sgood with me, because I'm not
angry at them anymore.
But the truth is thatneutrality is a lie and to not
(17:46):
be merciful is to be merciless.
We can either walk in abundantmercy, knowing that we are
bookended by the grace given tous by the Lord, or we can
withhold from those around us,poisoning ourselves and
withholding mercy from ourselveswhen we choose I'm not going to
give mercy to that personbecause I think they deserve
(18:06):
justice then we are the ones whoare stopping up the flow of
mercy from the Lord to ourselves.
Holding on to our own woundscan poison us.
Where mercy heals, mercytransforms.
When I was studying this, I keptbeing drawn to the story of
Peter, especially at the LastSupper and throughout the story
(18:27):
of the crucifixion.
And Peter is so confident atthe Last Supper and he's saying
I will never turn away from you.
Lord, like, let's go get him.
And even in the garden he pullsout a sword and he comes, he's,
he's guns ablaze and he isready to go.
But Peter.
But Jesus told Peter right.
And he said you're going todeny me three times before the
(18:47):
rooster crows.
And so I think that's partiallywhy Peter's so ready to go.
He's got something to prove outhere tonight, right?
And then things don't go theway that he thought that they
would.
You know, jesus says no, that'snot how we're doing things.
Jesus shows mercy to the Romansoldier coming to crucify him,
(19:13):
coming to take him away, and heheals him anyway.
And so then they go.
In Luke 22, 61 says the Lordturned and looked at Peter after
Peter had denied him for thethird time.
So they go, and Peter is kindof hanging back.
He doesn't want to beassociated with Jesus because he
doesn't know how this is goingto go.
They're really outnumbered andJesus isn't letting him fight
and his strength is in his ownfist, so he doesn't want
anything to do with it, right?
And so he's standing out there.
Do you know this man?
No, I don't.
(19:34):
Do you know this man?
No, I don't.
Do you know this man?
No, I don't.
And the rooster crowed and itsays that, peter, can you
imagine this is the worst momentin human history.
This is leading up to thisright, the crucifixion of Jesus.
(19:54):
This is one of his very closestfriends.
Can you imagine being Peter andlooking in the eye of the
person you love the most, whohas loved you the most, who
knows you deeper than anyoneelse?
And you just denied them inthat moment than anyone else,
and you just denied them in thatmoment and Peter went out and
wept bitterly.
I can't imagine that shame andself-disgust and hatred after
(20:17):
that moment that Peter must havefelt.
And then three days of silenceand grief and knowing that you,
that he wasn't there.
John was the only one and theMarys were there at the cross
and none of the other discipleswere there.
And then in John's gospel, youknow, the women come back and
(20:38):
they say, hey, the tomb is empty, the savior is risen and Peter
and John take off in a foot raceto the tomb and it says that
John won the race, which is ahilarious fact to put in the
Bible.
Can you believe that?
The Lord let John put that inthere?
But I wonder, I wonder if Peterheld back that day on his run
to the cross, was he afraid tosee the God he had forsaken and
(21:02):
betrayed, the God that heboasted so proudly to?
I will never turn away from you, I'll be the one there with you
.
And then, that night, turnedaway.
And he knows that.
Jesus knows it too, becauseJesus looked at him.
And we've all felt that way onsome level, haven't we?
We have all known when we havewronged the Lord and instead of
(21:23):
running to him, we slow oursteps in our shame.
But a little while later, thedisciples went fishing and Jesus
appeared on the beach and hetold them one more time to cast
the net on the other side of theboat.
And Peter recognized Jesus andjumped into the water one more
time to get to Jesus, alwaysexuberant Peter, anxious for
(21:47):
Jesus, with his fear in the way,and the verses say so.
When they had eaten breakfast,jesus said to Simon Peter Simon,
son of Jonah, do you love memore than these?
And he said to them yes, lord,you know that I love you.
He said to him feed my lambs.
He said to him again a secondtime Simon, son of Jonah, do you
(22:08):
love me?
He said to him yes, lord, youknow that I love you.
And maybe Peter was grievedbecause he wanted the Lord to
believe him.
He was upset that Jesus keptasking, as if he wasn't giving
(22:36):
him the right answer.
And maybe Peter was grievedbecause he remembered it the
last time.
He'd been asked a questionthree times and he gave the
wrong answer that time.
And so he said to him Lord, youknow all things, you know that
I love you.
And Jesus said to him feed mysheep.
Most assuredly, I say to you,when you were younger you girded
(23:00):
yourself and walked where youwished, but when you are old,
you will stretch out your handsand another will gird you and
carry you where you do not wish.
And this he spoke, signifyingby what death he would glorify
God.
And when he had spoken this, hesaid to him follow me.
(23:20):
Jesus' mercy to Peter wasn'texcusing him, but it was meeting
him in his pain and healing himin that mercy.
That connection point Jesus soeasily and righteously could
have said get behind me, satan.
Once more to Peter he couldhave said you betrayed me, you
did not stand the test, you didnot walk in the light, I want
(23:41):
nothing to do with you as afollower.
And instead he said follow meand I have a job for you, and
one day for you.
And one day Peter given anotherchance, a bigger chance, and
one day he was not the man whoturned away and denied
(24:02):
relationship with the Savior whowas led to the cross, but he
was the man led to the crossbecause of his relationship with
Jesus, because he would notdeny it, and he was crucified
upside down because he deemedhimself unworthy to die the way
his Savior did.
The mercy of Christ transformedPeter, and the mercy of Christ
(24:25):
transforms us, who we werebefore unmerciful, harsh,
self-centered, unmerciful, harsh, self-centered slaves to sin.
We have been called to a higherstandard and we have been given
the ability to be transformedby the mercy of the gospel.
And our last point tonight isthat mercy triumphs.
(24:46):
We will never be more mercifulthan the Lord will be.
You can never be more mercifulto someone else who is asking
something of you that you do notwant to give.
Your mercy to them will neverbe greater than the Lord's mercy
to you, because it's his mercythat you're spending anyway.
You couldn't come up with it onyour own strength if you tried,
(25:06):
and just like we see in theparable of the talents.
We who are faithful with littlewill be given more to be
faithful with.
Blessed are the merciful, forthey will obtain mercy.
And let's pray, lord.
We just thank you that you arethe merciful King who has chosen
(25:30):
to bestow your mercy on eachand every one of us.
And, lord, we ask yourforgiveness for the times that
each and every one of us haveshied away from offering mercy
to one another, when we wouldhave held our own sense of
justice and righteousness to bedearer and more important than
(25:51):
your call to pick up our crossevery day and to walk in the way
of the faithful.
Lord, I just ask that you woulddo what your word promised.
We know you will.
Lord, we ask that you wouldbestow mercy upon us, that you
would open our eyes to the waysthat we are withholding and that
you would enable us, with theability to be merciful to those
(26:14):
around us, to live with openhands and open hearts, and with
mercy that dwells in our heartsand our minds as much as it does
in our mouths and hands.
Lord, we thank you that you arefaithful and just to do what
you have promised To you.
The only right.
God be the glory, amen.
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