Whether you’re brand new to SonRise or have been around SonRise for a while, let me briefly state what we seek to accomplish in this sermon moment each week. During the preaching portion of our Sunday morning gathering we employ and enjoy a style of preaching called expositional preaching. Which means that whoever is preaching does not aim at saying anything new but seeks only to say what God has already said, such that the point of the text in view that week is the point of the sermon. In this sense whichever elder preaches the sermon we make it our aim to be the nothing more than servers, whose task is taking the Chef’s meal and bringing it to the table without adding to it, taking away from it, or changing it in any way, shape, or form. We don’t to do this randomly but orderly, as we work through books of the Bible. So when we come to specific passages week after week we come to them in their own context, having already examined the verses that come before while also anticipating the verses that come after. Or to put it another way, we seek to sit underneath the authority and illumination of the Scripture, rather than standing over it using the Scripture to support our own message.
This is our goal, we don’t do it perfectly, but we do aim to be faithful handlers of God’s Word.[1] Pray with me as we begin…
Today we come to a heavy reality. A reality that eventually every Christian faces and struggles with. A reality that forces us to ask the most sobering of questions. And a reality that can, if not handled rightly, leave us wrecked in the gutter of despair. What is this reality? It’s the second beatitude, our text for this morning, Matthew 5:4 which says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
This is a surprising statement, isn’t it? Who in their right mind would ever view mourning as a blessed thing? The statement in itself seems nonsensical. How can one who mourns be happy? How is mourning part of the blessed life where man truly flourishes before God? We tend to live our lives doing much to avoid feeling like this. And more so, we usually view those who mourn as those who need our pity, comfort, love, and care. We don’t view them as people who ought to be imitated,[2] but rather people who are under a dark cloud of gloom. Yet, how wonderful and surprising, Jesus teaches as much.
So a great question is before us that demands an answer. What is this second beatitude all about. What is God after in us here? What is God desiring of us in v4? I am glad to say, this is a question that not only has a definitive answer. It’s a question that has many answers, each beautiful in its own way. So let’s ask our question, and see three answers.
Question: what is the second beatitude teaching? Answer #1: the second beatitude is the result of the first beatitude.
v4 can certainly come across to us as a strange teaching of Jesus, unless we see it in its own context. So notice it. The first beatitude in v3 says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” We saw this last week. That to be poor in spirit is not to have a gloomy outlook on all of life, nor is it referring to a kind of defect in character or attitude. No, to be poor in spirit is to recognize our spiritual poverty. To recognize that we’re sinners. It’s to own and embrace our own impoverished state before God. That there is nothing about us that commends us to God. Being poor in spirit is not something we grow into or become, poor in spirit is what we are as sinners by nature. We saw that last week in v3.
Now see in v4 how there is a progression to the beatitudes. Each one leads to the next. v3 leads to v4. So when we recognize our own poverty of spirit, what happens to us? We mourn. We mourn over our sinful nature. We look at God, see Him in His holiness, then we look at ourselves in our sin, and we mourn that we are like this.[3] The theologian John Stott describes this reality within the soul, this mourning over sin in us and all around in us, and calls it a ‘sorrow of repentance.’[4] That’s such a helpful way of putting it, because it gets directly at what’s in view in v4. So mourning in v4 is not expressing a grim outlook or a putting forth a cheerless manner about yourself; nor is the mourning in view here just one who is sad about the difficulties of life.[5] The mourning in the second beatitude is a mourning and sorrowing over sin.
This leads us to the next answer to our question, which takes us deeper.
Question: what is the second beatitude teaching? Answer #2: mourning is the Christian’s response to sin, in all of its effects.
So to mourn, here in v4, is a mourning over sin, yes. But sin has layers to it. Sin has deeply troubled us and everything around us in many ways. Let me describe this four ways:
We mourn over personal sin. Meaning, the Christian mourn that we’re sinners at all. We mourn that our first parents didn’t remain in their blessed and perfect condition but fell into the ruin and corruption and death of sin. Just think of all the ways sin impacts us personally.
We mourn the fallenness of our physical condition, that these bodies aren’t what they were meant to be. That they grow old, that they don’t work as they ought to, that they grow weaker with age, that they can get cancer, can have strokes, can be wrecked by heart attacks. And ultimately, we grieve that these bodies, because of sin, will one day die, running out of all life and vitality as we lie in our own caskets or urns.
We mourn our sinful physical condition, yes…but we also mourn our sinful spiritual condition. Even though we are redeemed by Christ, we mourn that part of our nature still hates Christ and fights against Christ. We mourn actual sins we have committed. We mourn the pain our sins have caused others and the grief our sins has brought to God. We mourn the vile contribution we have made to the world and deeply grieve that we are part of the problem. The well-known author/thinker G.K. Chesterton was once asked ‘In your opinion, what is wrong with the world?’ He responded slowly and sadly, ‘I am.’ We mourn over personal sin.
Next, one layer beyond personal sin is that we’re to mourn over familial sin. Meaning, the Christian mourns and grieves over the sin present in our own families. We mourn the sins present in our marriages, that they don’t represent the gospel as they ought to. That husband and wife far too often serve themselves rather than one another. We mourn the sins present in our children, that they rebel against their parents in disobedience, that they are far too captivated by the world instead of being gripped and thrilled by Christ. We mourn the sins present in our extended families, not only that they have their own sin to deal with but that extended families are often estranged from one another and refuse to reconcile. Generally put, we mourn that our families are not what they ought to be.
Alongside this, we can move out another layer and say we also mourn over church sin. As there is sin in our own families, so too there is sin in God’s family. And everything that we’ve said so far could be applied to the church as well because the church only has one kind of person in it, sinners. This is true from the nursery to the seniors group. And while the Church will always have sinners in it, it is still a reality we ought to mourn over. That we as a local church are not what we ought to be, and must be ever turning away from sin and back to the Savior. How does sin reveal itself in the church? Do we even have time for this question? John Bunyan’s work Pilgrims Progress gives us a list of sinful personas present in the church. Those like Obstinate, who are ever resistant to any change. Or Pliable, those who might seem firm but who wilt before any obstacle. Or Worldly Wiseman, who thinks like the world rather than with his Bible. Or Formalist and Hypocrisy, who both have the outward form of religious devotion but lack any real substance within. Or Talkative, those keen to debate the finer nuances of theology while avoiding any true life transformation. We could go on and mention Lord Hate-Good, Giant Despair, Ignorance, Turn-Away, Flatterer, and Legalist. Just as with our own lives, and with our own families, you don’t have to look very hard at the church to see sin within it. We mourn this reality.
Finally, moving out one more layer, we mourn over global sin. This is the biggest picture possible in view here. Meaning we mourn and grieve all sin, wherever it is found. Everything from wicked nations, wicked governments, and wicked rulers…to natural disasters, and human trafficking. The second beatitude teaches us that the Christian mourns over all sin: personal, familial, congregational, and global.
This is all fairly heavy isn’t it? That’s ok, it is. Sometimes we need sobering reminders in life to remember that sin is real and has real consequences. James 4:8-10 echoes much of the same idea saying, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” Martin Luther also knew this well. He mourned over his own sin and the sin present all around Germany from the peasants to the popes. So naturally when he wrote on what the Christian life looks like, you know what he said? “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said ‘Repent’, he meant the entire life of believers is to be one of repentance.”
So as heavy as this is, it’s what Christians do. This is part of how we became Christians. Acknowledging and owning our poverty of spirit and then mourning over that fact. This is what initially made the cross shine so bright to us! The more we knew of our sin and saw our sin, the more we knew depth of God’s grace. And this is what still makes the cross shine to us even now! The more we see of sin, the more we see the depth of God’s grace. We come to understand that grace is like water, for it always finds the lowest place. So just as we never outgrow or get past being poor in spirit, so too we never outgrow and get past mourning and grieving over our sin. It is as John Stott and Martin Luther said, the sorrow of repentance is the Christian life.
But, praise God v4 doesn’t end with the mention of mourning. If it did we might think that faithful Christians ought to work hard to look miserable in life.[6] But that misses the point! v4 doesn’t end with mourning, it keeps going and gives us rich assurance. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Seeing how v4 ends, brings us to back to our main question and now to our third and final answer.
Question: what is the second beatitude teaching? Answer #3: mourning over sin leads us to gospel comfort.
Note here that Jesus does not promise comfort for all mourners, no. He only promises comfort to those who mourn over sin.[7] So mourning for a season, yes, but not for always.[8] Ultimate consolation is sure. Comfort will be given and will well up within us in the midst of our grief. Let’s examine this comfort.
This is a comfort that relieves burdens. Think back to the moment you came to know the Lord, or the numerous times the Lord met you in the midst of your sin. Was is it not a precious thing to feel the burden and heaviness of our sins melt away? The load of guilt is a heavy burden, that rolls away off our shoulders when the Spirit applies the redeeming work of Christ to us. Matthew 11:28 is true, “Come to me all who labor and our heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Sin is clearly perceived as a burden in this passage, a burden that is relieved in the comfort of the Christ. So it is only the sin sick heart that receives the comfort of Christ in v4.[9]
This comfort is the work of the Spirit, for He is called the Comforter. He is the One who comes in power to lift us from the dust and place us back on our feet, enabling us to keep moving ahead when we can’t see the way. He is the One who comes with life and light when sin sits heavy on us feeling like death and darkness. He is the One who turns our eyes to Christ and causes us to run to Him for healing. When sin abounds in us and all around us the Spirit is One who and bursts through the fog with the light of truth and the fires of worship. He is the Comforter.
And this comfort is also our eschatological expectation.[10] In this the best wine is reserved for last. As the Christian looks[11] at the world, even as the Christian looks at themselves, groaning and grieving is the result as we taste and see the sinfulness of sin. But comfort immediately rushes in, because ultimately we know there is a glory and a Kingdom coming. That a day will soon dawn when sin will be banished forever. This is the Christian’s blessed hope! What a glorious day that will be!
Isaiah 61:1-3 puts all of this on display wondrously.[12] These are the words Jesus took up in the temple as He began His ministry. “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’S favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.”
So how then are we to sum all this up? I want to read a quote to you that wraps all of this up nicely, showing how the Christian life really looks in practice when this second beatitude is lived out. The quote is from David Brainerd, missionary to the Native Americans in New England.
On Thursday, November 4, 1742 Brainerd wrote this in his journal, “God is unspeakably gracious to me continually. In times past, He has given me inexpressible sweetness in the performances of duty. Frequently my soul has enjoyed much of God…but as of late God has been pleased to keep my soul hungry…so that I have been filled with a kind of pleasing pain. When I really enjoy God, I feel my desires of Him the more insatiable, and my thirstings after holiness the more unquenchable. And the Lord will not allow me to feel as though I were fully supplied and satisfied, but keeps me still reaching forward. I feel barren and empty, as though I could not live without more of God; I feel ashamed and guilty before Him…oh for holiness! Oh, for more of God in my soul! Oh, this pleasing pain!...Oh, that I may feel this continual hunger, and not be slowed, but rather animated by every cluster of Canaan to reach forward in the narrow way, for the full enjoyment and possession of the heavenly inheritance!”[13]
The pain of sin, the pleasure of grace, the barren emptiness of our souls, and the full supply of our Redeemer. The Christian life is truly a life of pleasing pain. May all the clusters of Canaan animate us to reach forward to the full enjoyment of the Lord, in this life, and in the next!
[1] The Response Church in San Diego begins many sermons with a description very similar to this.
[2] Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew, PNTC (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1992), 97.
[3] Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon of the Mount, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1981), 58.
[4] John Stott, quoted in Morris, 97, footnote 18.
[5] R. Kent Hughes, The Sermon on the Mount: The Message of the Kingdom, Preaching the Word Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001), 27.
[6] Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon of the Mount, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1981), 54.
[7] A.W. Pink, An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1969), 20.
[8] Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew, 97–98.
[9] Pink, An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, 20.
[10] Donald Alfred Hagner, Matthew 1-13, Volume 33A, ed. Bruce M. Metzger, David Allen Hubbard, and Glenn W. Barker, Revised ed. edition (Zondervan Academic, 2018), 92.
[11] Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon of the Mount, 61.
[12] R.T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, NICNT (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007), 165–66.
[13] The Life and Diary of David Brainerd, entry from Thursday, November 4, 1742, pg., 103-104.
