Word of Salvation – Vol. 22 No. 06 – November 1975

The Happy Mourner

Sermon by Rev. Stephen Voorwinde on Matthew 5:4

Scripture Readings: James 4:1-10; Matthew 5:1-12

How do you make people think?  This has been the basic question facing preachers and teachers throughout the course of history.  How have they solved this fundamental problem?  One way is by asking questions and provoking discussion.  Another is by speaking in parables or symbols.  But perhaps the most effective way to make people think is by using the paradox.   What is a paradox?  A paradox is a statement that seems to bring two opposite ideas together.  Let me give you a few examples.  I heard a person say once, "Even when I was little, I was big".  Another paradox would be; "She plays the part of a poor little rich girl".  The famous psychologist, Sigmund Freud, summarized his teaching in a paradox: "The child is the father of the man.”  A paradox then, is a mind-teaser.  It gets you thinking.

The Bible itself uses a lot of paradoxes.  Paul, for example, describes himself as "poor, yet making many rich, and as having nothing, yet possessing all things." Again he says, "When I am weak, then I am strong".  Paul seized his readers' attention.  He made them think.

The same was true of Christ.  There he was on a hill facing a group of Mediterranean peasants.  How was he going to make such people think?  He used a paradox, “Blessed (or happy) are those who mourn."  What do you do with statement like this?  How can it be explained?  How can you, too, be a happy mourner?

Well, it always helps to know the context of a statement.  The context here is the Beatitudes.  How do they begin?  How do they end?  In verse 3 we read, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven".  In verse 10 it says, "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven".  So, then, "the kingdom of heaven" is the key to understanding the Beatitudes.  It is the parenthesis, the brackets, in which the Beatitudes are placed.

But how does this help us in unravelling the paradox, "Happy are those who mourn"?  "The kingdom of heaven" is itself something of a paradox, is it not?  Wouldn't this mean that you were working out one paradox by another paradox?  "The kingdom of heaven" is quite a puzzling concept in Scripture.  Think of the Lord's Prayer, for instance.  First we say, "Thy kingdom COME”; and later we say, "Thine IS the kingdom".  Think, too, of Christ's words before Pilate, "My kingdom is NOT of this world".  Compare this to what he said to his disciples, "The kingdom of God is WITHIN you".  What kind of kingdom is this that is not of this world and yet is inside people.  That already is and is yet to come?  What is this mysterious kingdom?

When the Bible says that God is King, it does not always mean that He is King over creation and that His kingdom is the universe.  A king not only rules a kingdom.  If he is a good king he lives with his people.  Buckingham Palace is not on a tiny island to the north of Scotland, but right in the heart of London.  The sovereign lives with the people.  So when the Bible speaks about God's kingdom it often means that God is living with His people.  That is why John the Baptist said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand".  God, in Christ, was about to live with His people.  God had come, so the kingdom had come.  The kingdom was in the here and now.  It was a present reality.  But if it was in the here and now, why did Christ say that it was not of this world and still to come?  He pointed to a time when the kingdom would be complete.  There would be no rival kingdoms anymore.  The citizens would be perfect and never stray away from God.  The kingdom He was now establishing would one day be the kingdom in the new heaven and the new earth.  That's why it is called "the kingdom of heaven".

But what about us today?  Christ is no longer living with us, nor are we yet living with him in heaven.  Does God still live with his people today?  Yes, Christ promised that He would send the Comforter.  This Comforter is the Holy Spirit.  God lives with us in the Spirit.  The British monarch lives in the heart of London with the people.  The Holy Spirit lives with you – in your heart.  God is our King through the Holy Spirit.

What kind of kingdom is this?  In Romans 14:17 Paul says that it is characterized by righteousness, peace and joy.  This is true of the Sovereign.  It should also be true of the citizens.  If you are a citizen of this kingdom then you, too, should be righteous, peaceful and joyful.

How do you get into this Kingdom?  How do you become a citizen?  John the Baptist said, "REPENT, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand".  Yes, repentance is your visa into this kingdom.  In the Beatitudes Jesus said basically the same thing.  "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."  But who are the poor in spirit?  They are the ones who see how hopeless and helpless they really are.  They see Christ in all His purity, and they see how filthy and polluted they are themselves.  Unless you realize you don't deserve it at all, you won't be able to be a citizen of this kingdom.  But does it end there?  No!  Once you realize you are hopeless and helpless, filthy and polluted, what do you do?  You don't think of excuses.  You don't blame someone else.  You mourn.  What kind of mourning is this?  It is Christian mourning.  It is mourning over sin.  The Christian must ask himself, "Why is it that I behave the way I do?  Why should I be irritable?  Why should I be bad-tempered?  Why am I not able to control myself?  Why do I harbour that unkind, jealous and envious thought?  What is it in me?"  He hates his sin and mourns over it.  This is genuine Christian experience.

"Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted."  Only when you have mourned can you have true comfort, for THE Comforter, the Holy Spirit Himself, will live in you.  Then you, too will be a citizen in His kingdom, a kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy.  Today we all want the abundant life that Christ promised.  We all want an abundance of peace and joy, but we won't have it until we have experienced an abundance of mourning and sorrow.  You must mourn over sin if you are to have joy.  An old English proverb says, "No sweet without sweat".  It is the same for the Christian ― no joy without mourning.  If you have mourned over your sin you will be a truly happy person.  If you have never mourned over sin, you may well wonder whether you are a Christian.

But the Christian does not stop with himself.  He also mourns over the sins of others.  Christ had no sin of his own to mourn over, but he did mourn over sin.  In Luke 19 we see him weeping over the sins of Jerusalem.  Instead of being glad that he was going to the end of his journey, he mourned because of the city's sin.

In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul tells his readers to be ashamed of themselves.  One of their members had been having relations with his step-mother Yet they were arrogant and proud of their spiritual condition.  Paul said, "You ought rather to mourn".  Yes, the Christian must mourn over the sin around him.

How about the world today?  What do you do after you've read the newspaper?  What is your attitude toward the state of society and the moral muddle we're in?  By and large the older generation condemns, the younger generation is resentful, and pretty well everyone is disgusted.  But who mourns?  We do not need bitterness and hate, but mourning and love.  Strangely enough, mourning leads to change.  Christ mourned over Jerusalem.  Then He went in there and threw all the merchants out of the temple.  The Corinthians mourned over the sinful member.  He repented.

Let me give you a modern example.  In 1886 there was a split in the national church in Holland.  The group that split away was nick-named "The Mourning Church' ('De Doleerende Kerk').  Do you know that that church did more to change Holland than any single force since the Reformation?  First, a Christian university was founded, the Free University of Amsterdam.  The new church joined with smaller churches in 1895.  In 1905 a Christian prime minister was elected.  Christian newspapers were published daily.  Christian schools were built.  The church grew rapidly.  By 1940 it had 700,000 members.  It provided some of the finest thinkers, theologians and statesmen that Holland has ever known.  In addition to this, large numbers of missionaries were sent to Indonesia.  The foundation was laid for the Indonesian church which is now the fastest growing church in the world.  Yes, this is what can happen when people mourn over their sin and do something about it.  Mourning brings change.

Are you mourning for Australia and the world today?  Are you mourning over the crime, immorality and hate that surround us today?  Christ mourned for Jerusalem.  The Corinthians mourned for a sinful member.  But what about those who do not mourn?  Does the Bible have anything to say about them?  Yes it does.  In the ninth chapter of his prophecy, Ezekiel records a vision.  God calls to Himself seven men.  One of them is clothed in linen and has a writing case in his hand.  He is a clerk.  The other six have a weapon in their hand.  They are the executioners.  God then tells the clerk to put a mark on the foreheads of all those who had mourned over the sins of Jerusalem.  Then He commands the other six to kill every person who does not have the mark whether that person be an old man, a young man, a girl, a woman or a young child.  Not one is to be spared.  They are to slaughter all those who do not have the mark.  Have you mourned over the sins around us?  Do you have the mark.......?

The mark reappears in Revelation 7, where it is placed on the foreheads of all the servants of God.  Then in Revelation 14 we are finally told what the mark is ― the name of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, and His Father.  Yes, God has sealed His own for eternity, and they will forever live with Him on Mount Zion, the New Jerusalem, the capital of the heavenly kingdom.  Do you have the mark?  If so, what are perhaps the most beautiful words that have ever been written that apply to you.  They're in Revelation 21.

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling of God is with men.  He will dwell with them and they shall be His People, and God Himself will be with them; He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away''

How blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted!  But let me ask you again: Do you have the mark?

Amen.