Matthew 5:5
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Hello, church. It's good to be with you and open up God's Word one final time this evening. In 2019, I was working in corporate America in the defense industry, and I'd been paired up with a mentor who met with me regularly. He provided a lot of insight into my projects and my professional growth. He was an ambitious man who had advanced himself quickly in his career, and as a rising manager myself, I was eager to learn from him. One day he called me into his office. He had a specific goal. As I sat down, he said, I want to eradicate. I want to get rid of meekness from your life. What? It should have been no surprise, right? The world hates meekness.
It is perceived as a self-imposed restraint on strength, on ambition, on confidence. It leads to a delay on ingenuity, on advancement, on progress itself. All points that my mentor made. So the world comes up with slogans that attack meekness. God helps those who help themselves. The meek shall inherit the earth. The rest of us go for the stars. That is amazing hubris.
In front of your bulletin is the verse for tonight, Matthew 5, verse 5. It says, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. We are dropped this evening and at the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus has gone up onto a mountain to tell his followers how a life changed by the gospel should look to the world. Do you want to know what kind of people Christians ought to be? Do you want to know what kind of character Christians ought to aim to be?
Then you should read the Sermon on the Mount. Because we are united by faith to Christ, this is the character we're being made into. And that is good news. Jesus starts his teachings with the Beatitudes. Now, despite a breakdown of the word, these are not just attitudes to be. They instead form a vignette, a little picture of what a disciple of Jesus looks like. How someone who has responded to the gospel lives their life.
Beatitude just means a supreme blessing, and those whom the Lord Jesus blesses are blessed indeed. There are seven blessings, and the first three are really surprising. They don't seem like things that should be blessed. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek, really? Tonight we focus our time on the third beatitude, meekness. What I want to convince you of is this. Christians should be meek because our inheritance is won through a meek Savior.
Christians should be meek because our inheritance is won through a meek Savior. There's two points this evening, the what of meekness and the why of meekness. The what and the why. You know, when I became a homeowner, there were many things I didn't expect. Leaky roofs, weeds growing everywhere in my lawn. One thing that really shocked me was the need to snake-clogged drains. When Stephanie and I saw what was clogging our drain, oh, we recoiled in disgust and horror.
I wonder if you react to meekness that way. You recoil. We so often associate meekness with weakness. In direct contrast to the peak alpha male, you have the meek alpha male. someone who never speaks up for what they want, or someone who acts like they don't deserve much respect. So is the call just to be a doormat for other people to step on as they climb higher?
After all, the world is full of ruthless people who seek to use their own strength to assert themselves furthering their own agendas. Does being meek mean we just allow people like this to take advantage of us it's true that meekness is a humble or gentle attitude towards others but more importantly meekness stems from a true estimate of ourselves an estimate that is given to us by God's word meekness sees the reality of sin and chooses above all else to trust in the Lord, not trust in ourselves. Abraham was meek when he let Lot choose the land first because he trusted the Lord to be faithful to his promise. Moses, said to be the meekest man on the face of the earth, was meek when accused by Aaron and Miriam in Numbers 12 because he trusted the Lord
to vindicate him. David was meek when Nathan confronted him over his sin because he turned from it and he trusted the Lord. James writes to us and tells us the meek are those who receive the word because we trust that the Lord's ways are better than our ways. Meekness at its core is a trust in the Lord because we know how great, we know how powerful he is. Another way we tend to misinterpret meekness is to say that to be meek is to be quiet, to not forcibly share our opinion.
You will this week go to meetings at work, and there will be people in those meetings who love the sound of their own voice, who lack meekness. They might be loud and forceful. They might be quiet and judgmental. Both of them lack meekness. You can be modest. You can be non-confrontational even. And yet lack meekness.
Let me be clear. The live and let live mantra. The who are we to judge. That is so pervasive in our culture is the opposite of meekness. It is refusing to take a true estimate of ourselves and the deceitfulness of sin. It is saying we know what is best in our lives, that we should do what is right in our own eyes. It is refusing to submit ourselves to a higher standard of truth.
So it's setting ourselves up to be the ultimate standard of truth. That is not meekness. That is the height of pride. And pride is the opposite of meekness. Jesus is himself our model of meekness. He describes himself in Matthew 11, 28 as meek and lowly in heart. He is gentle to others, bruised reed.
He does not break a smoldering wick. He will not quench. But Jesus drives merchants out of the temple. He becomes grieved, angry even by the Pharisees' hardness of heart. So he confronts them about their hypocrisy. So what is meekness according to the Bible? Meekness doesn't mean weakness or quietness. It is not a lack of passion or conviction or indignation for the glory of God. Meekness is a readiness to listen to others, but more importantly, a readiness to listen to God.
It means to be slow to anger, slow to condemn, slow to speak because of a trust in the Lord. It is to have a true view of ourselves as forgiven sinners and be amazed that God extends mercy and grace to us. That makes the meek person humble, gentle, sensitive, patient with others. Well, this definition, I hope, gives us many points of application. of which the foremost is, are you meek?
Let me offer two tests for us to self-diagnose. First, how do you respond when others, maybe your spouse or a friend or your own children even, point out sin in your life? You know, most of us are very happy on Sunday to come in and sing about what miserable sinners we are. But when someone points out sin, indignation follows. Who are they to say such things to me?
That's a basic hypocrisy that is rampant when meekness is absent. Second, how do you respond when things just don't go your way? When your co-worker gets the assignment, you want it. When that couple gets pregnant or married and you don't. When your money pit of a car breaks down again. What's your response? Are you quick to grumble at the lot you've been given in life?
Do you despair and bemoan God's goodness? Or do you with the meekness of Elizabeth Elliot on the news of her husband's death say, will find rest nowhere but in his holy will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what he's up to. That is meekness. I'd love to tell you, church, that when my mentor sat me down, told me to eradicate meekness, that I rejected his advice.
That isn't what happened. I left convinced to use my own strength, my own cunning, to assert myself over others. But we serve a good, a kind, a meek Savior who brings strange sheep back. maybe like me and you need to grow in meekness to grow in meekness we need to understand why christians should be meek point two the why of meekness our verse gives us an answer see it look at the text what does it say the meek are blessed because they shall inherit the earth.
That's quite honestly shocking. We expect the opposite. We expect the meek to be ignored and get nowhere. Notice the word inherit. The meek don't conquer the land. They don't take the land. They receive it. It's already been won for them, and now it's given to them. Christians, that is the white, hot center of the gospel. All blessing, all inheritance, all the earth is given to those who are found in Christ, who are called brothers and sisters because they are poor in spirit, because they mourn over their sin and in meekness look to the one who has won the inheritance for them.
Jesus, who lived perfectly, who died sacrificially, who rose victoriously and calls us to follow him. It's through meekness, not might, that we enter our spiritual inheritance in Christ. We cannot accept Jesus as Lord unless we meekly set aside our pride and commit our lives to him. And if you are in Christ, everything is already yours.
I don't know what tomorrow will bring. One thing I do know, if you have placed your faith in Jesus, your eternity is secure. Jesus will return. There will be a new heavens and a new earth for you to inherit. So don't fret. It seems that our verse is at least in part a quote from Psalm 37. I would encourage you to read Psalm 37 tonight and calm your hearts in the midst of the many anxieties that we all face.
It says, In just a little while, in just a little while, the wicked will be no more. The meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. That peace is freedom from conflict. That peace is freedom from anxiety. Most importantly, that peace is peace with God and being adopted into his family. Though our sin separated us from him, it has been paid for on the cross.
Why should you be meek? Because if you are found in Christ, you already have more than you can possibly imagine. You don't have to prove yourself. You don't have to make your own way. Your inheritance is secure. So what do we do in the here and now? Be characterized by meekness. Trusting in the Lord who has already promised you the earth.
in meekness, act confidently, risk freely, pray boldly, share faithfully, confront gently, forgive lavishly, confess humbly, give generously, live patiently, mourn hopefully, speak slowly. You know where you will end up. Because we trust God and His promises.
Let me pray. God, we pray that we would trust in You and Your promises. How You, through Christ, have secured our inheritance. We pray that You would grow us in meekness because You have already won everything for us. free us from anxiety and pride as we walk in faith. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.