Mat 5:4; Sadness Has a Whole New Face.

Class Outline:

Tuesday April 2, 2024

 

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

 

Idea: A person’s mourning will remain after salvation, but its perspective is changed to the mind of Christ.  

Intro:

The poor of the ancient world were generally the ones who mourned. 

 

Jesus is referring to life in their world and is using generalities. 

 

How salvation would change your perspective. Member of the kingdom of heaven, though still poor and surrounded by sorrowful situations in this world.

 

MAT 5:4

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

 

Salvation in Christ was the only hope for the poor (ISA 61:1-2). 

 

Their oppressors will not get away with it, though in human courts they seldom find justice (1st century for the poor). They themselves have an eternal home where there will be no more pain or crying.

 

LUK 6:20-30

 

Jesus is trying to pull us out of the mentality of the world where your class determines the quality of your life. 

 

It is general, the rich laugh and the poor mourn (JAM 4:9). At salvation, your status does not change (LUK 6:22). At salvation, your perspective changes completely (LUK 6:27f.).

 

Mourning in the believer (in NT) is in reference to sin (1CO 5:1-2; 2CO 12:21; JAM 4:1-10). 

 

We are still in situations of mourning, but our perspective changes. We mourn for the sin of our oppressors, of our brothers and sisters, of our societies. 

 

God does not delight in judgment.

 

EZE 18:23 Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked," declares the Lord God, "rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?

 

ISA 45:22 “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other.”

 

Because we mourn over sin, we love our enemies, pray for them, and do good to them.

 

Sorrow over our own sin, 2CO 7:8-13. 

 

Mourning over the struggle of other believers, 2CO 7:7 (mourning for Paul). 

 

Any reason for mourning is going to have some connection to sin. 

 

Application: Mourning for ourselves and our own situation is met with the gospel and with faith, we are comforted by the King of kings and blessed in His kingdom. Our mourning does not evaporate, but now its object is different. Rather than mourning for ourselves, we mourn for the oppressor, the sinner, those who have chosen to be trapped and enslaved by their sin nature. Hence, in salvation there is our first taste of all the blessings of Christ, and then, as we mature as His apprentices, we taste more and more of the blessings of heaven and we apply them in love to those around us. Blessed indeed. 

 

The gospel comforts the mourners, and they remain mourning over things from a far different perspective - the mind of Christ.

 

If you find yourself to be cold and uncaring to the suffering in this world, then you soul is lacking something of the mind of Christ.