Being Merciful, and Pure in Heart
Matthew 5:7-8
Let’s turn to Matthew 5. If you need a Bible, go ahead and raise your hand and we will bring one to you. Matthew 5 is on page 809 in the Bibles we are passing out. We are working our way through what’s called the Beatitudes – which is one of the best known passages in the Bible.
In the Beatitudes Jesus gives eight statements describing certain people. And He says these people are blessed because of what they receive.
So let’s read through them – and notice what these people will receive –
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Notice that when Jesus lists what these people receive He begins and ends with the same one -- “the kingdom of heaven.” Why?
I think it’s because the kingdom of heaven is the general description of what we receive in salvation -- and everything else in-between is more details on what it means to receive the kingdom of heaven and be saved.
So receiving the kingdom of heaven – being saved -- means
Being comforted – experiencing God’s forgiveness pouring into our hearts
Inheriting the earth – at the end of history receiving the new heavens and earth
Being satisfied – having our hearts filled with God’s love now and forever
Receiving mercy – forgiveness and all God’s goodness now and forever
Being called sons and daughters of God – knowing, enjoying, and fellowshipping with God as our Father
So who receives the kingdom of heaven? Who is saved? Those who are poor in spirit, who mourn, who are meek, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who are merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.
Now that could feel discouraging. Because in ourselves – in our sinfulness – we are unable to be pure in heart – to be merciful – to be meek. But the order of the Beatitudes is crucial.
Jesus starts with one that everyone can do – just come to Him and admit that we can do nothing – and mourn before Him for our sinfulness.
And when we do these first two -- everything changes. Because He died for our sins – Jesus will completely forgive us, He will fill our hearts with His love and peace and comfort, and He will supernaturally change us so we grow in everything else on this list.
Last week we looked at how that worked for being meek, and hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Today we are going to look at how that works for being merciful, and for being pure in heart.
So look again at v.7 --
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
What does it mean to be merciful? To answer this I looked up other places where Jesus uses the word “mercy” – and here’s what I found. He uses the word “mercy” to describe forgiving someone who has cost us something (Mat 18), and to describe what the Good Samaritan did for the man beaten up by robbers (Luke 10).
So being merciful means having a heart which wants to do good for others – even if they have hurt us, and even if they can do nothing for us. And Jesus says it’s the merciful – those who do good for all others even if they have cost us, or if they can do nothing for us – it’s the merciful who receive mercy from God.
So what might it look like to be merciful this coming week?
Let’s say that at work someone on your team doesn’t get his assignment done – and the whole team suffers as a consequence. What would it mean to be merciful? It might mean some strong words and some consequences. But it would also mean that in your heart you forgive him, you don’t hold it against him, you don’t gossip to others about it, you don’t speak badly about him, your heart is at peace about it, and you genuinely are concerned about him. That’s what it would mean to be merciful.
Or let’s say your wife has been taking care of your kids all week, and you can tell she is exhausted. What might it mean to be merciful? Well – how about surprising her with a babysitter on Saturday and spending the day with her in San Francisco? That would be merciful.
Or let’s say someone in your home group rubs you the wrong way. They talk too much, or say hurtful things, or seem like they don’t like you. What would it mean to be merciful? It might mean talking to them, and asking them if there’s some problem. But it would also mean not holding it against them, not bearing a grudge against them, not talking to others about them, loving them, caring for them, reaching out to them. That’s what it would mean to be merciful.
One more example. Let’s say a neighbor’s husband walks out on her, leaving her with the kids, and not paying any child support. What would it mean to be merciful? It would mean caring for her, helping her, taking them dinner, asking them over for dinner, offering to babysit the kids, helping her look for work, telling her about Jesus. That’s what it would mean to be merciful.
So being merciful means having a heart which wants to do good for all others, even if they have cost us, and even if they can do nothing for us. And Jesus says the merciful are blessed – because they will receive mercy from God.
Now that doesn’t mean we need to be perfectly merciful – flawlessly merciful – to receive mercy. It can’t mean that -- because in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus teaches that every day we will have to confess our sins before Him. But it does mean that we need to be growing in mercy, increasing in mercy, repenting when we don’t have mercy, and taking new steps of mercy. If that’s happening – then we will receive mercy.
So the crucial question is -- how can I grow in being merciful?
Let’s take that last example – your neighbor has had her husband walk out on her and is in terrible need. But if you are honest – you are not sure you want to get involved. Maybe she was not the perfect wife. And you are already busy. You are short on time. Money is tight. Maybe her kids aren’t very nice.
So you look inside your heart – and are having a hard time finding any mercy there. So what can you do? What you don’t want to do is just rely on your will-power. Don’t say – “I’m going to try real hard to be merciful.”
That won’t be from the heart, and it won’t last. So what can you do to change your heart from feeling no mercy – to feeling genuine mercy? What can you do?
Just like we saw last week – the order of the beatitudes is crucial. I start by turning to Jesus and admitting that I am poor in spirit – in myself I am a sinner. Whenever we come to Jesus with that heart – powerful supernatural things start to happen. And then we then mourn before Jesus -- forgive me, Jesus, for my lack of mercy -- I look to Your death to forgive me and your resurrection power to change me.
And right here Jesus promises that every time we do that -- something astonishing will happen. You will be comforted. You will feel God’s love pouring into your heart. Your heart will be filled. You will experience peace, joy, hope. And you will overflow with love, compassion – and mercy!
The order of the Beatitudes is crucial. They all always start with being poor in spirit before Jesus, mourning before Jesus, and being comforted by Jesus.
This helps us avoid a terrible misunderstanding. Man-made religion ignores the order. Man-made religion reads v.7 and says – so to get God’s mercy I need to be merciful. They try to earn mercy from God by being merciful to others. That is completely wrong.
We must start with the first Beatitude. First we admit that we are poor in spirit and we mourn for our sin – we come to Jesus by faith alone – and then we are comforted with His forgiveness, His love, and His mercy. So after the first two we are already receiving God’s mercy. We are already saved. And then – as a result of receiving His mercy – our hearts are filled so we have mercy for others.
But that mercy for others does not save us. What saves us is faith – being poor in spirit before Jesus and mourning before Jesus. And then – as we see God’s power changing us so we have mercy – we will be even more assured that we have been saved and that we will continue to receive God’s mercy.
Do you see how crucial the order is? We will see it also in v.8 --
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
What does it mean to be pure in heart? To answer this, I looked at places where Jesus talks about what He wants for our hearts. Jesus wants us to –
be free from adultery in our hearts (5:28);
be free from the love of money in our hearts (6:21);
honor God in our hearts (15:8);
have our hearts free from evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders (15:19);
love God with all our hearts (22:37).
So I put all those together and came up with this: being pure in heart means having a heart filled with love for God and what flows from love for God – like love for others, joy in God, hatred for sin, compassion for the lost, and so forth.
Now here’s a question someone raised this past week. I am supposed to be full of love for God. But Thursday Phil Wright and I had veggie burritos at Tacos al Pastor – and I loved that veggie burrito. Was I pure in heart as I loved that veggie burrito?
Yes -- if I recognized that God provided that veggie burrito, that He created veggies and whole wheat tortillas and guacamole and cheese and salsa – and so my pleasure in that veggie burrito pointed me to how great God is so I loved God more than the veggie burrito – and I love Him more because of the veggie burrito.
Or some of you took advantage of the amazing weather and went to the beach this last week. And you loved it! But does that mean you were impure in heart? Not if you let the weather and the beach point you to the God who gave those gifts to you so you end up loving God even more because of the beach and the weather.
Do you see how that works? Purity in heart does not mean having no other loves than love for God. It means loving God supremely, and enjoying all the good gifts God gives as a way to grow even more in loving God.
So pure in heart means having a heart filled with love for God and whatever flows from love for God. It means having a heart free from worry, bitterness, lust, greed, racism, and so forth.
How can we purify our hearts? This is crucial – look again at v.8 –
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
It’s the pure in heart who will see in God. Now again, Jesus is not talking about hearts that are perfectly pure. He can’t, because every day His followers will need to confess their sins – their heart impurities to Him. So what Jesus is talking about is growing purity of heart. He’s talking about our hearts growing in loving God more than anything else.
So how can we do that? If your heart has impurities in it like jealousy, worry, greed – the way to get it pure is not by trying not to be jealous, trying not to worry, trying not to be greedy.
No – the order of the beatitudes is crucial. We start by admitting that we are poor in spirit, in ourselves we have deserved only God’s judgment -- and then mourning over our sin, confessing our sin to Jesus, trusting Jesus to save us, change us, satisfy us.
When we do that Jesus promises – you will be comforted. You will feel God’s forgiveness pouring into your heart – you will feel God’s love filling your heart – and when you feel God’s love filling your heart – you will so taste of God’s goodness and majesty and glory that you will love God more than anything. You will be so filled you won’t lust or be greedy. You will be so full you won’t be able to be angry.
And what will happen to those who are pure in heart? They will see God.
People travel thousands of miles to see the Mona Lisa. To see Yosemite. To see Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon. Because our highest joys come from seeing greatness.
God is the greatest greatness. And Paul says that saved people do get to see God in this life -- through a mirror dimly. But at the end of history we will see God face to face.
Imagine what it would be like to see in front of you – the One who has always been. Whose power spoke into existence this massive universe of 50 million 100,000 light years wide galaxies. Who came to the earth in the person of Jesus – born as a baby. And who loved you so much, cared for you so much, longed to help you so much that He was crucified to pay for your sins.
Imagine what it will feel like to see Him – and to see in His face love for you, joy that you are home, compassion as he wipes every tear from your eyes, and delight as He knows from now on you will have no more sorrow, no more pain, no more fear, no more death.
Imagine what it will feel like to see Him. You will – if you are pure in heart. And you will be pure in heart – if you will admit before Jesus your spiritual poverty, mourn before Jesus for your sin, and receive the comfort of Jesus’ forgiveness and love and presence.