Simple Faith

Guest (Male): Is it okay for a Christian to get really ticked off about something? Are we supposed to just zip our lip and say nothing? Well, here's Pastor Bill Henry.

Bill Henry: I don't know what it is about us today. We think that we don't have to be meek. We can just be jerks to everyone or, sometimes we can have these outbursts of wrath and it's okay. It's not okay.

I like what Matthew Poole the commentator said about being meek. He said, "But the meek, who can be angry, but restrain their wrath in obedience to the will of God, and will not be angry unless they can be angry and not sin."

Guest (Male): Think back to when you were a kid. Was there some famous person you wanted to be like? For me, it was basketball great Jerry West. I wanted to be just like him. Well, for the Christian, there's only one person we should strive to be like and that's Jesus Christ.

Today on Simple Faith, we'll see how we can be more like Christ as part of our ongoing study in the Sermon on the Mount. Of all the character traits Jesus displayed during his time on earth, one that rarely gets mentioned is his meekness. Yes, he was meek, and that's not a negative word at all, as we're about to see.

Pastor Bill Henry will define meekness for us today and we'll see just how powerful meekness can actually be. With today's message from Matthew chapter 5 verse 5, here's Pastor Bill.

Bill Henry: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." As we come once again to what the church has basically called the Sermon on the Mount, here in chapters 5, 6, and 7, as Jesus is giving a sermon here as he goes to a mountain, just by way of reminder, Jesus again has gone to the mountain, he is teaching his disciples.

So again, this is a message for the disciples of Jesus, even though the masses will hear it as we'll see at the end in chapter 7, but he is speaking to his disciples. Thus these teachings again are those even today who would call themselves a disciple of Jesus. Any disciples here?

If you call yourself a Christian, what you may not realize is you also are to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, a follower, one who is continually learning from the Lord. So again, these teachings are only for those who have been born again of the spirit of God because we need his empowering, even as we're going to see today as we're talking about meekness.

We need God empowering us, changing us, molding us continually as we die to ourselves, putting off the old man, the old woman, and living in Christ, putting on Christ and his power that we can live in this manner. As you read through chapters 5, 6, and 7, it's like, "Whoa, Lord, how can I do this?" You cannot, but I can in and through you.

And so we need to understand that, and that's what's happening here. Again, I'm going to continually remind you what one of the commentators said: "The Sermon on the Mount did not give a constitution for the kingdom, nor does it present a way of salvation. The sermon shows how a person who is in a right relationship with God should conduct their life."

And so if you are a Christian, a professing Christian, and we're reading through these things, this should be: Check, yes, I'm not perfect but I'm getting more like this. Check, I'm doing this more. Check, I'm more like that. If it's the other way around—"Oh, well I'm not like this at all"—well, you need to come before the Lord. I need to come before the Lord and take note of these things.

And so again, this sermon teaches the Christian how to live the Christian life. It's not saying that if you live this way you will be saved, or if you live this way you will keep your salvation. It is saying if you are saved, you will live this way. And so we need to understand the difference there, but also be those who can test ourselves whether we be in the faith or not.

So now as we're in the Sermon on the Mount, we're also in the midst of what we call the Beatitudes. I like what one of the commentators said: "It's basically how our attitudes should be as Christians." And so first we looked at, if you remember back in verse 3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." And then in verse 4, "Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

So Jesus is giving us the disposition of a disciple of Jesus, someone who has been born again of the spirit of God, not simply being religious as we're going to even see especially more today. First, they'll be poor in spirit as they stand before a perfect and holy God, and we realize that we are nowhere near as perfect as he is, that we are sinful men and women, and it humbles us.

And then yet we see that theirs is the kingdom of heaven, and as they are poor in spirit they will then—the next one—they will mourn over their sin. That's as we talked about last week, this isn't mourning over the loss of a loved one; this is the mourning over our sin, and we will be comforted.

And so again, notice how both of these entail humbling ourselves before God, putting ourselves down here, and as we talked about last week, he then as we humble ourselves, as we mourn over our sin, he then comforts us. He picks us up. He lifts us up. So they shall be comforted. And then that leads into verse 5. It just continues: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

The Amplified says it this way: "Blessed, happy, blithesome, joyous, spiritually prosperous, with life and joy and with sanctification in God's favor and salvation regardless of their outward conditions." Gives a good little picture there for "blessed." "Are the meek, the mild, the patient, long-suffering, for they shall inherit the earth."

Now you'll remember we've talked about "blessed" a couple times already. "Blessed" here in the Greek is from the Greek word *makarios* and basically means "blessed, how happy, oh how happy," possessing the favor of God. And Greek scholar Zodhiates said, "The state of being marked by the fullness of God, said of one who becomes a partaker of God's nature through faith in Christ."

Oh how happy, oh how full of joy is the Christian, no matter what our circumstances, because we know we have been born again of the spirit of God. We know we have Jesus Christ. We know that we are now basically clean and cleansed before God and can stand before him in Jesus Christ. So then this leads again into verse 5: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

Now I'll be honest with you. I read at least 8 to 10 or about 10 to 12 different commentaries and Greek helps and different things, and it's interesting because the word "meek" here, every single one of them, they all said that there is no word in the English like the Greek word "meek." In the Greek it's *praus*.

And basically there's no English word that equals this word. "Meek" doesn't quite make it. So basically I'm going to kind of go through a few things so stay with me because this is very intentional. For a lot of times when we hear the word "meek," we might as well just change it to "weak." And yet that's not what this means.

But to a lot of people, even in the world today, it just means weakness. But it doesn't mean that in the Greek. So *praus* in the Greek means mildness of disposition, gentleness of spirit, meekness. Some additional information this Greek scholar put in: "Meekness towards God is that disposition of spirit in which we accept his dealings with us as good and therefore without disputing or resisting."

Meekness, mildness, forbearance. Forbearance might be closer. We don't use that word much today, "to forbear" or "to have forbearance." Zodhiates again, the Greek scholar, said this of this word: "Meekness, but not in a man's outward behavior only, nor in his relations to his fellow man or his mere natural disposition."

Rather, it is an inwrought grace of the soul, and the expressions of it are primarily toward God. It is the attitude of spirit we accept God's dealings with us as good and do not dispute or resist. Remember that's what the last Greek scholar said.

Now *prautes*, which is another form of this same Greek word, according to Aristotle, is the middle standing between two extremes: getting angry without any reason and not getting angry at all. Therefore, *prautes* is getting angry at the right time in the right measure for the right reason.

*Prautes* is easily expressed in English since the term "meekness" suggests weakness, but it is a condition of mind and heart which demonstrates gentleness, not weakness but in power. It is a balance born in strength of character. So it is that balance between getting angry or outbursts of wrath or not getting angry at all.

It is that balance of being extremely strong and abusing that strength or not using that strength at all. Here's another Greek scholar. He said, "Primarily it does not denote an outward expression of feeling, but an inward grace of the soul. Calmness towards God in particular. This meekness does not blame God for the persecutions and evil doings of men."

It is not the result of weakness. And in the third beatitude, it expresses not the passivity of the second beatitude, but the blessedness that exists in one's heart from being actively angry at evil. So it is not something that is without action, but it is also not one that's being angry but sinning not.

And so in Vines, he said it this way: "Described negatively, meekness is the opposite to self-assertiveness and self-interest. It is self-control of spirit that is neither elated nor cast down simply because it is not occupied with self at all." Dude, fire. Anybody else? How many people here are occupied with self?

Another commentator said it this way: "Meekness is not weakness; meekness is strength under control." And so it's interesting how the world sees even meekness. Here's Webster's definition. Ready? "The quality or state of being meek, a mild, moderate, humble, or submissive quality." So they might as well just throw in "wimpy" kind of thing right in there.

But another Greek scholar says this isn't so. They say it this way again: "The English word meek has largely lost the fine blend of spiritual poise and strength meant by the master. He calls himself meek and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29) and Moses is also called meek. It is the gentleness of strength, not mere weakness."

And so we have to understand. I remember I can't help but to think I have a friend of mine, his name is Larry de Ruiter. Anybody ever heard of Sylvester Stallone? And you've probably seen him. I think he's probably about this tall in real life, so I heard he's pretty short, but he's just like this.

Well, my friend Larry is about 6'4", 6'5", and he looks like Sylvester Stallone, has the curly hair and he works out and he's just this buff dude. But he is one of the strongest guys I know, but he's also one of the gentlest guys I know. But he also doesn't just stand around if evil is doing things; he'll step in and say, "No, no, no, you need to stop that."

And the smart person will just say, "Okay," and walk away. And he doesn't need to go to that place, but it's that strength under control. It's interesting we read about meekness all throughout the word of God, and I'm just going to highlight a few. Psalm 37:11, basically mirroring what Jesus says here, "But the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."

And then in Numbers, Moses as one of the commentators just mentioned, in Numbers 12:3, it says, "Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which are upon the face of the earth." So Moses was a very meek man. You see in the book of Numbers, you see in Exodus, you see in other places where he could have these outbursts of anger as well, but he was very meek among all the people of the earth.

Jesus said in Matthew 11:29, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls." Gentle there is the same word, meek. I am meek and lowly in heart. Matthew 21:5: "Tell the daughter of Zion, behold your king is coming to you, lowly and sitting on a donkey, the foal of a donkey."

So again, lowly there, meek. So Jesus is meek and he's quoting from the prophet Zechariah in Zechariah 9:9: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you. He is just and having salvation, lowly, meek, and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey."

Now it's interesting we just read a moment ago about this. Remember there where Jesus says in Matthew 11:29, "I am meek and lowly in heart"? If you look at the old King James, it says meek there actually. But this is the only autobiographical description Jesus gives of himself: "I am meek." What he says about himself: "I am meek and I am lowly of heart."

And so this is how he described himself. What was his personality like? He was meek and lowly in heart. This commentator goes on to say, "So too after a person realizes he is poor in spirit and begins mourning"—so again, the first two beatitudes—"he finds himself meek with his strength harnessed for the purposes of the king and for him alone."

Isn't that a beautiful description? Again, this is all about realigning our vision, realigning our hearts, realigning our thoughts and our purpose in life. And it should be to bring glory to him who saved us, him who we're going to spend eternity with.

You see, to be those who are meek, as we die once again, we're those who will die once again to ourselves and our flesh. So again, this is a continual—remember Jesus said "daily"—deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me. When we first come to Christ, maybe you thought it was a one-time deal.

Some people act like that, by the way. "Oh, I did that when I first came to Christ. I don't deny myself anymore. I just go do what I want to do." And sadly there's a lot of people who profess Christ that are just like that. No, this is to be every day, to be those who are meek, continually dying to ourselves, dying to our flesh. And we're to be meek not just towards God but towards all men.

Titus 3:2 says to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers but gentle, showing meekness unto all men. Can I ask you this morning, would you describe yourselves, even as Titus says here, as gentle and showing meekness to all men? Does that describe you today?

When I, if we were to sit down, husbands, and talk to your wives, would they say, "You know, he's kind of a meek man. He's a gentle man"? Or is he loud and he's gruff and he's mean? Or let's change that around. Wives, what would your husband say about you? Is she a gentle woman? Her words are meek and they're uplifting and mild. Does that describe us today?

How about children with your parents? What would your parents say about you, children? Would they describe you as meek? Or how about parents with your children? How would your children describe you? How would your friends or your other family members, those you meet on the street, those that you have to deal with when you're at a restaurant and you have a waiter or a waitress?

I always can tell so much about someone by the way they treat somebody that's working in customer service. Have you ever noticed that? When they're rude to somebody that's serving them or rude to somebody on the phone that's trying to help them, you can see a lot of their heart.

But here's the question this morning: do you see a lot of your heart? I don't know what it is about us today. We think that we don't have to be meek. We can just be jerks to everyone or, sometimes we can have these outbursts of wrath and it's okay. It's not okay.

I like what Matthew Poole the commentator said about being meek. He said, "But the meek, who can be angry, but restrain their wrath in obedience to the will of God, and will not be angry unless they can be angry and not sin, nor will easily be provoked by others, but rather use soft words to pacify wrath and give place to the passions of others; these are the blessed men."

I love this because he's incorporating there some of the Proverbs: "A gentle word turns away wrath." And this is who we're supposed to be as Christians. Again, this is an example of a man or woman who has been given great power by the Holy Spirit of God. Yet at the same time, has been harnessed by the restraining power of the Holy Spirit.

Each one of us here, those watching or listening, if you've been born again of the spirit of God, you have been given great power by the Holy Spirit of God. I've been given great power. But we've also been given another power by the Holy Spirit, and that is the restraining power, to restrain our flesh, to restrain the sinful nature that we all still have. Amen? Amen.

But here's the thing: it's our choice whether or not we're going to walk in the spirit or we're going to walk in the flesh. And again, this is a choice that we don't just make in the morning, which we do make every day, but throughout the whole day. Am I going to respond now in the spirit or in the flesh? Am I going to respond in this situation in the spirit or in the flesh?

And so this is a choice that we choose to make. It's our choice whether or not we will choose to walk in the meekness available to us as Christians because Jesus Christ is living within you. Amen, anybody? If you're a Christian, Jesus is there, residing, tabernacling within us.

And if Jesus is meek, guess what? As we're being conformed into his image, who else is going to be meek? Us. We're going to have this meekness. Now you need to remember as well that meekness is also a fruit of the Holy Spirit of God. So this is a fruit that will be growing in our lives.

Galatians 5:22 and 23: "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such things there is no law."

Guest (Male): Pastor Bill will have more on the topic of meekness as we continue our look at Matthew chapter 5 verse 5 next time, so be sure to join us. This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington.

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Thanks for joining us today. Be sure to join us next time as our series on the Sermon on the Mount continues here on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel.