About this sermon
Psalm 37 tells God’s people not to fret over evildoers but to trust in the Lord and wait for him, for the meek shall inherit the land, and Jesus repeats that promise in the Beatitudes. Meekness is the quiet strength seen in Moses and in Christ, who submit to God’s dealings and bear with others instead of pushing to be first. Those who begin poor in spirit grow into this meekness and receive the earth as God’s gift.
Sermon transcript
for our Old Testament reading, Psalm 37. Our topic is, Blessed are the meek. And so notice how the meek are mentioned in this passage as we read this. Psalm 37, I’ll begin reading in verse 1. Fret not yourself because of evildoers. Be not envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.
Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in Him and He will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.
Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in His way, over the man who carries out evil devices. Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not yourself, it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. In just a little while, the wicked will be no more. Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land. and delight themselves in abundant peace.”
And we’ll end our Old Testament reading there. And if you’ll now turn with me to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5 as we continue our study in the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes specifically. Matthew chapter 5 and we’ll begin our reading at verse 1. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain. And when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
And we’ll end our reading there. Let’s pray. Our Lord and our God, we thank you for your word. And as we look into this sermon that Jesus gave so long ago, may we hear their truths. May we be blessed. May we be encouraged. May we be challenged. May your spirit come alongside us in this time. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
So we’ve talked about these being the B attitudes. What’s the world’s B attitude? I’d say this is what they might suggest is their B attitude. Blessed are the strong, the proud, the independent, and successful. Those who can hold their own. For they will be considered great.” Is that not pretty much the B attitude of the world around us?
Whether it’s sports figures, politicians, movie stars and celebrities, or business tycoons. That’s kind of the picture we have. And who’s the picture of who you don’t want to be? Does anybody remember Back to the Future? Anybody? Just a show of hands. I just want to know if we have anybody who… Oh, there’s a few of us that remember Back to the Future. Do you remember the name of the Casper Milquetoast character? George McFly.
He is the epitome of what you don’t want to be in the world today. And of course we had Biff, who was the bully, who in a sense was what the world was all about and what the world desired to be like. And so there’s the contrast that we see in our world. This is what the world says is the right way to be, the right attitudes to have. And George McFly was not it.
So, the Beatitudes. How do we understand these? Let’s review a little bit of what we have been saying. First of all, with the Beatitudes, we talked about a ladder. We’re ascending a ladder as we look at this group of Beatitudes. The first one, poor in spirit, and this group inherits the Kingdom of God. Then there were those who mourn. and they’re gonna be comforted. And so as we think about these two, we recognize the true poverty of spirit that we have, our utterly sinful condition and our poverty of spirit. The depths of this is incredible.
Our hopelessness outside of Christ causes us to then grieve and mourn over our sin and the consequences of our sin. and what Jesus has had to do on our behalf. And we have injured others. We’ve injured ourselves. We’ve injured others. And so we grieve and mourn over what we have done in our poverty of spirits.
And now we understand that in this life, this side of perfection, this side of heaven, we will never stop being poor in spirit. We will never fully stop mourning and grieving over the sin because we will never stop sinning. We will never be perfect. But we also have the idea that as we are on this ladder, as we grow in our faith, that we will see ourselves with less grieving because we hopefully will see ourselves experiencing less sin in our life.
And we will also, in contrast, be experiencing the comfort and grace and mercy of Jesus Christ in our lives. And so those will move us to this new beatitude, the attitude of meekness. The attitude of meekness. So how do we understand Meekness. How do we look at this? First, I want to say what the opposite of this is. And I think if we think back to back to the future, Biff was the opposite of what meekness is. He was harsh. He was tyrannical. He was haughty. He was rebellious. He just was a bad guy. He just was all about himself. Arrogant, conceited, and proud. That’s the picture we have of what is the opposite of being meek. So what does the picture of meekness not look like?
What are we not expecting to see here? Well, if you think back to the early New Testament time and the Greek perspective, the Greek view was that meekness was a weakness. If you were meek, they saw it merely as being servant-like, as someone who was not worth considering. It also, meekness is not the idea of being a Casper Milquetoast, not being a George McFly. That’s not what we want to think of meekness as.
It’s merely a doormat, the person that gets walked on in whatever they do. meekness in our biblical perspective is not merely being timid or being shy. Now, in our DNA, we kind of look at that, say someone who is kind of introverted, into themselves, and we say they look like they’re being meek. And we might use that idea, but that’s not the biblical idea of meekness. Just because someone hangs back, just because someone doesn’t speak up, or someone is not as active in sharing of their opinions and their ideas, does not bring them to being biblically meek.
Meekness is not otherwise. Also being apathetic, feeling nothing, having no perspective on something, is not being meek. It’s not being the way that God wants us to be meek. Another aspect of what meekness is not is being ignorant. Sometimes we’ll look at people who have no understanding, no ideas, no knowledge, and they seemingly are meek because they just are not knowledgeable in certain areas. Not having zeal for God.
Just because someone is of a temperament that is not excitable and they’re calm and gentle does not merely or make them meek. So how do we understand meek? And I want to suggest that those who are meek are not extreme in their lives, either one way or the other. They’re balanced in how they approach and think about life and their responses. So their emotional responses and desires are scaled down. They’re on a scale where they’re not either way out here or way out there. The meek hold an even scale in their lives with regard to anger, to sorrow, and fear. they are preserving that sense of moderation and being in the middle, not turning to the right or to the left.
So here are some examples in scriptures of those who are meek. And what is in a sense surprising if we don’t think of this, Moses is the only one who I know of in scripture besides Jesus Christ who is said to be meek in Numbers chapter 12 verse 3. It says, Now Moses was a very humble, and that’s the same word used for meek man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth. And you think about Moses’ life, and you think about the things he had done, and the places that he had been. He was someone who had killed. He had done all kinds of different things in his life. But Scripture tells us that he was the most meek man.
Well, what was the context of this verse, Numbers 12.3?
At this point, Miriam and Aaron, his siblings, have just spoken against Moses, because he has just had the sense that he had married this Ethiopian woman, and they were speaking against him. They were wanting to claim leadership, and as if they had the voice of God connection that he had, they were trying to take that place. In a word, they were jealous of Moses. How does Moses do in this situation?
Well, first of all, Moses didn’t deserve this kind of treatment. He didn’t deserve what they were doing to him. And what does he do? Nothing. He does not respond in defense of himself. He doesn’t get up there and give a diatribe or a debate or a discussion about what he did was right and you people are wrong.
God defends Moses. And in that way, God defends Moses by striking his sister Miriam with leprosy. And Moses, even at that point, could have said, eh, see, you got what you deserved. He could have said those words or he could have thought those words. But what we see is that Moses speaks on behalf of his sister Miriam to God to say, take this from her. So Moses is a great example in the Old Testament. of one who was meek in the face of what was before him.
And of course, Jesus is our other example. In Matthew chapter 11, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle, you fill in the word meek in the Greek text there, I am meek and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. The picture of Jesus, again, Matthew 21. Say to the daughters of Zion, see your king comes to you, gentle, read meek, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. This is the picture of what meek is, Jesus, the king of all kings, Lord of the earth, and comes into Zion in that very meek way, on a donkey. This is the picture of scripture of what meek looks like.
So how do we express meekness? How do we think about this in our own lives? Well, first of all, we want to think about how are we meek towards God? And I think there’s two aspects here of how we demonstrate meekness before God. First, we endure. We have what I call meek endurance. We accept what God brings into our path without murmuring, without sulking, without rebellion or resistance.
Again, think back to the Israelites in the desert. They were constantly complaining, constantly against God. And what have you done to us? And why are you doing these things? It would be better back in Egypt. And yet Moses never voices these concerns.
We are to accept what God has. When sorrow comes on us, When we rely on our natural strength, we become like children. When these things happen to us, we kick and we scream and we have temper tantrums. Maybe they’re adult temper tantrums, maybe they’re not. But this is not how we endure meekly what God brings to us. And we take offense at this, as if, I don’t deserve this. Why can this happen? Why is this happening to me? And that’s the picture of what we are not to be doing. Instead, we are to without murmuring, without complaining, without rebellion.
We’re blessed when we accept what God brings our way, what he sends our way. And so what can be a sorrow, what can be painful, what can be annoying becomes joy to us as believers who are demonstrating, acting out meekness towards God and enduring what he brings to our lives. What’s the second aspect of meekness towards God?
It’s obedience. It’s obedience. It’s doing what God calls us to do with a heart that is willing to say, as Jesus said in the garden, not my will, but thy will be done. That’s the picture of meekness. And so we, in the same way, have to say, not my will, not my desires, God, but what you desire. Your will and our will bends and conforms to God’s, no matter what he brings our way.
Whether it’s joy, sorrows, light, darkness, whatever it is, we say, yes, Lord. And the picture the scriptures give us here is that clay. We are like clay in the potter’s hands. We don’t tell the potter what to make us into. We don’t complain about what he’s done. If we are the clay and he is the potter, we sovereignly accept what the Lord has brought into our lives. And we delight in conforming to his way and his will. So that’s how we’re meek toward God. How are we meek towards others, to those around us in the world?
And it’s what’s interesting in the Beatitudes, as we look at this idea, this is the first Beatitude that involves others, that’s relational. Being poor in spirit, that’s me. Mourning, that’s me. But now, meekness is something that is demonstrated towards others. This is outward oriented. So are you able to respond with meekness when people point out your poverty of spirit, your problems, the issues in your life, are you able to respond in relationship to the first two Beatitudes of having that poor spirit, wings poor in spirit, having that mournful and grieving heart over your sin, then are you able to respond meekly to those who help you understand these things in your life? We need to have that true view of our poverty and sense of sin to respond appropriately to those around us.
Otherwise, what do we do? We lash out, we defend ourselves. We become like, not me, that’s not what I did, you can’t put that on me. We get into that sense of defending ourselves at all costs instead of responding with patience or an openness or being teachable. mildness, gentleness to that evil. Even if it is evil, even if it is good. We’re free from a malicious heart. We’re free from a vengeful spirit.
We’re not going to have an attitude in our meekness towards others that says, oh yeah, well let me tell you something about you. That’s not being meek. We respond in the way the Lord would want us to respond. The meek can discern what is evil We don’t have to have our own way. We don’t have to demand our rights if we’re expressing meekness. We are zealous for the Lord, but we are zealous to temper our thoughts and our actions, our work and all that we do so that God is served, not us. So that God is praised and raised up, not us. And that’s what I need to do if I’m going to be meek towards others, is I need to work daily on expressing myself in these ways, controlling, self-controlling my passions and my emotions so that I don’t lash out at those around us.
This is what the meek will be doing. So, idea of being meek towards God, meek towards men, how do we see this in scripture? What are some other passages that help us understand this? Well, if you’ve been with us in the book of James, we saw this in James chapter 1, verse 21. The word there is, humbly accept, and it would be better read, meekly accept the word planted in you. This is not being weak and mamby-pamby and Casper milquetoast, but it’s being submissive to God, meekly, humbly taking what He is telling us, not being haughty and rebellious, not rejecting what God has, but accepting it as God’s truth and incorporating it into our daily lives. James chapter 3, a little bit later, says this, Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, By deeds done in the humility,” read meekness, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. So meekness involves gentleness, it involves that sense, it involves humility, it involves this idea of accepting and receiving these things in the way we relate and treat others. What’s an example of this?
Horses are broken at some point. We try to get on them. I don’t like to do this personally, but people try to get on horses and ride them, and use bridles and all kinds of things to control them. To me, it seems like a very scary proposition, because I never know what would happen, because horses are horses, and in my mind, they’re not trustworthy.
But even scriptures will tell us that here’s a case where the horse is at some level put under control, is made to be humble, made to be meek, has this bridle in its mouth, and that’s somewhat of the picture. That we, when we are meek, are like horses who are bridled.
What I like to call this, the term I like to do is say, this is strength under control of the Holy Spirit. That’s what meekness is for us. It’s not weak, mamby-pamby, Casper milquetoast kind of people that get walked all over. It’s strength. It’s might. It’s power. But it’s bridled. It’s controlled.
That’s what the picture of meekness is. That’s why James said, who is wise and understanding? How are you known by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom? That’s what we’re to be like. That’s what meekness is for us. Strength under control of the Holy Spirit. And it comes from wisdom. It comes from wisdom. How often do we act without wisdom? How often do we just react without any sense of what we’re about? And we just lash out. We just do something.
And it’s not a meekness. It’s not a humility. We’re to act out of these ways in our life towards others with gentleness, with humility, and then with considerateness. Considerateness. That’s when you think about others before yourself, when you consider others’ sensitivities, others’ issues, other things that are going on in other people’s lives, and being willing to accommodate them. Now, we don’t accommodate sin, we don’t accommodate what is evil and against God and abuse, but we can accommodate other people’s quirks, other people’s character traits, how often do we respond in haste and in anger and annoyance towards that which is really not sin?
Well, the person who is meek is going to be considerate and will allow those things to wash over, will allow those things to pass by them. It’s that sense of Romans 12, 21, do not be overcome by evil, do not be overcome by these things in the world, but overcome evil with good.
That’s the picture of what meekness is. Another area where meekness will show its face in a similar sense is when the meek person is provoked, when there is that sense, they can remain silent, in the face of whatever is oppressing upon them, whatever offense comes on them, or they can return a soft answer. Again, James chapter 1, we saw this recently in our evening services. My dear brothers, take note of this. If you want to know what it means to be meek, this is it.
Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry. I think that’s a perfect picture of what it is to be me. Why is this? Because for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. That’s what we are to be. We are to be slow to speak, slow to get angry, But what? Quick to listen. Are we listeners? Meek are listeners. The meek are slow to these things. Think about this picture. I’m not a dog lover, and so I really pay attention when I hear dogs barking. It really affects me.
But have you ever seen dogs do this? One dog starts to bark, and then the other dog barks back. And then that dog barks back at the barkback, and then barkback, barkback, barkback. It just goes on and on. And it’s this picture of not listening and just going at one another without having any sense of what’s going on. Now, sadly, you may have experienced this in the human world. One person barks. The other person barks back. This one bark, bark, bark, bark.
It’s that picture of what we’re not to be about. So we need to understand when someone barks, we don’t have to bark back. Those who are meek are going to be this very idea, quick to listen, slow to bark, and slow to become angry. That’s what we want to see in our lives as meek. Can you show displeasure when it’s appropriate? Moses showed displeasure when it was appropriate, yet not go overboard in the display in that setting. Can you remain calm when others get hot?
I don’t know if you have ever played in church softball leagues. Anybody who has played in church softball leagues knows exactly what I’m talking about. This is a place where you need to be quick to listen, so to speak, and slow to get angry. I remember umpires talking to umpires who said, church softball leagues were the worst place to umpire in. What a sad statement about church softball leagues.
Because this was the picture. Because there was not a demonstration of meekness in those settings. We are called to turn away, to remain silent, or return a soft answer. It’s the picture of meekness. We have to be rarely provoked and easily pacified as those who are meek. We need to say, I would rather forgive 20 injuries that happened to me than revenge one for something that happened to me.
Having that control over my spirit, that’s the picture of meekness. One last item here that we think about in terms of what is meekness, it’s the absence of pretension. It’s the absence of having a heart that says, I deserve what I deserve. 1 Peter 3, chapter 4. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle, slash meek, we read meek, and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.
1 Peter 3.14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear. Do not be frightened, but in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness, meekness, and respect.
How many times do we, as the all-knowing, all-perfect, almost in a sense, reformed people, blast others with our knowledge? How often do we belittle others? How often do we, as it says here, give an answer for the hope that is within us, but has very little to do with meekness and respect? We are called to have an absence of a pretense of I’m right and you’re wrong.
I’m better than you and you need to know it. If I’m going to be meek in this way that God calls me to be, then I need to put away all of that sense of I’m better, I know more. If you will just listen to me, everything will be fine. Do these things with gentleness and respect. Well, that’s the picture of meekness. The question that I always have is, well, that’s really nice stuff, but that’s not me. I’m not very good at this meekness thing. I’m really good at the other side. I’m really good at everything that we’ve described here in the opposite way. Why can the believer, why can we react in meekness? Why should we react in meekness instead of with pride and harshness and tyranny and all the other things that we shouldn’t be doing. Here’s why I should be reacting in meekness. If I have grieved over my sin and sensed my complete unworthiness before God, then surely I should be able to do the same for others. I should be able to receive God’s mercy and grace, and then I should be able to show mercy and grace to others.
I’ve received it. You’ve received it. Do we truly understand what we have gotten, what God has done? I should be able to see these things as what God has done for me. Listen to Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 25. God speaking to us, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
So if we truly understand this, if we truly have received God’s comfort, if we know this in our life that we are made clean, then we should be truly penitent. We should truly have a heart that sees, I have received an incredible grace and mercy from God, and I need to extend that to others. That’s the picture of why I can be meek. When we realize what debt we have had forgiven of us, we are not as likely to go so hard on that other person who has offended us. We need to have that heart attitude, that sense of meekness because I have received incredible mercy. That’s who I am. That is what God calls us to do, to be meek in this way. So what is the outcome? What is the outcome for the meek? What is the thing that comes to them?
Well, we actually saw this in Psalm 37 that we read in our Old Testament passage, verse 11. The meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace. the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.” This, of course, is a reference to Israel and to the peaceful possession of the Promised Land based on their faithfulness to keep God’s commands. This is what was to come to them. This is what the blessing was. This was the happiness. This was the joy that they were going to receive if they indeed acted as meek people.
It’s quite an opposite view of what the Jews of Jesus’ day wanted. What did the Jews in Jesus’ day wanted? They wanted to set up an armed rebellion against the Roman government, win back Israel for them, and they figured that Jesus was the best thing going at the time. So, Jesus, let’s do this, let’s rebel, let’s go against the people.
But that was not meekness. That was not the promise of blessing that was to come to set up an army and push out those who were ruling over them. So what is this idea of inheriting the earth, the meek inheriting the earth? Because I think it’s talking about the earth. It’s talking about something of our temporal time, our time on earth. The idea here is that this is indeed for now. This is indeed something that is here. So what is the blessing of inheriting the earth for us? Well, first of all, let me again start with what it is not. Inheriting the earth is not that everything in the earth, the possessions will all be yours and if you indeed act meekly, you should expect to have health and wealth. That’s not what inheriting the earth is.
The meek are not likely to be the ones bullying to the front to get the biggest piece of cake. The meek are not the ones who are going to push through in that crowded room to get first in line. Rather, the meek are the ones who stand around the edges waiting for others to go ahead. Do you know who the meek are sitting here?
You probably do. You probably know who are the ones who say, no, no, you go first. No, no, no. I’ll go later. Or they just stand back. That’s part of this picture of the meek. This is what we would see them doing. The possessions of the things of this life are not a measure of importance and esteem for them. They’re not the measure of happiness or blessing for the meek.
Proverbs chapter 16 verse 8 says, Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice. Do you live that way? Is that true for you? Blessed or better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice. So the earth in view in one sense here is that which we dwell in now. It’s the life here and now, but it’s not about possessions for the meek. Meekness promotes health, wealth, comfort, and safety. It looks for those things. It doesn’t try to abuse ourselves. It doesn’t try to make ourselves worse off. Those things are good in this life.
But the meek live the most easy of lives because they live meekly. If you think about this, think about those who are harsh, tyrannical, who are the troublemakers, who are are unkind, selfish. Typically, their lives are a lot harder in terms of their relations with others. Typically, they live difficult lives, whereas the meek lifestyle, happiness, blessings, not looking to do those things, not being involved in those other activities, somehow we find a great happiness.
God’s provided us all things that we need in life. For life, regular living, and godliness. In the face of evil forces, fraud, malice, God saves the meek. God blesses those who are meek. The meek possess whatever God gives them, and they are content with what he is pleased to give them, because it has pleased him to give it to the meek. Blessed are those who are meek.
We need to seek meekness. Listen to this from Zephaniah chapter 2 verse 3. Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility, seek meekness. Perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger. And that’s the picture we have. Seek these things because this is who God blesses. These are those who will inherit the earth. So the Beatitudes emphasize this putting off and putting on.
Pride is what we need to remove from our lives. It’s one of the main things that needs to be replaced. Having that poverty of spirit is the first step. and then realizing that we are mournful and we are not prideful in that place. We need to realize that thoughtlessness and a casual, no worries, I don’t care what’s going on, it’s no big deal about my sin, prevents us from having the right heart attitude toward our sin. That’s what needs to be replaced by mourning for that sin.
And then as we move forward, such attitudes as anger, impatience, discontentment, are what? They’re replaced with the beatitude of Christian meekness. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Let’s pray. Our Lord and our God, We find it hard, typically, to be meek. We are typically proud. We are typically wanting to put ourselves forward. We are typically wanting to let other people notice us, to be me first, to get what we want.
It’s so against our human, fallen nature to be meek. And so, Lord, we know that without your saving grace, without your Spirit in our midst, in our hearts, soul being changed by the Spirit. There is no hope for us. We won’t have that poverty of Spirit. We won’t be mourning. We won’t see any of this.
We’ll be like the world that says the Beatitude is to be me first, me the greatest, and everything about me. And so Lord, forgive us where we have followed in the world’s steps, where we have been that kind of Beatitude. and not been meek, not putting others first, not following what you would call us in humbleness, gentleness, consideration, the way we should not respond in like manner to that which is upon us.
But Lord, give us a heart that is meek, a heart that follows in the example of Jesus Christ. when these things are upon us. Lord, if there are those who don’t know you at all, I pray that you would be changing hearts that are dead, selfish, all about themselves, to hearts that are flesh and alive in Jesus Christ, that look to you and trust in you alone for their salvation, and that they would Get on this ladder of the Beatitudes that you have set forth in scriptures. We thank you for your word. Lord, comfort us where we fall short, challenge us where we fall short, and lead us in your way. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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