Flourishing in Pity
Flourishing in Pity
Sermon Summary:
In this powerful message, we’re invited to explore the profound concept of mercy in our spiritual lives. The focal point is Matthew 5:7, ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.’ We’re challenged to understand mercy not just as a fleeting emotion, but as a core attribute of God’s character that we’re called to embody. The message delves into the rich Hebrew word ‘hesed’ and its Greek counterpart ‘eleos,’ revealing mercy as a complex theological concept encompassing love, compassion, and steadfast loyalty. Through stories like the Good Samaritan and the Unmerciful Servant, we’re shown that mercy isn’t just about feeling, but about action. This teaching encourages us to reflect on how we can become more merciful in our daily lives, reminding us that as we show mercy, we also open ourselves to receiving it. In a world marked by judgment and polarization, we’re called to be ‘colonies of heaven,’ demonstrating God’s transformative mercy to those around us.
Sermon Points:
Vocabulary Work
The Greek Translation on the Hebrew Bible translates the Hebrew word, hesed (love, lovingkindness, steadfast love, loyal love, goodness, mercy) with the Greek word, eleos (mercy, pity, compassion).
Eleos in the Greek New Testament belongs in the semantic domain of mercy, pity, love, tenderhearted, compassion, and favor.
Biblical/Theological Reflection
Mercy is a complex concept in the Bible. It is one expression of a divine attribute of God. Flowing out of His love, God displays His compassion towards us through His mercy. His mercy is undeserved and is closely connected to His grace.
“Have mercy (chanan) on me, O God, according to your unfailing love (hesed); according to your great compassion (racham) blot out my transgressions.”
-Psalm 51:1
“All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions . . .”
-Ephesians 2:3-5
“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”
“God loves to show mercy… His anger must be released by a stiff safety lock, but his mercy has a hair trigger.”
-John Piper
On a human level, mercy is the ability to “feel” for others, experience pity, sympathy, empathy for them, and respond in grace to their need. It embodies both an attitude and an action. It also applies to the concept of demonstrating mercy through forgiveness.
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
-Luke 6:36
Parables of Jesus (One slide)
The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)
The Unmerciful Servant (Matthew 18:21-35)
“Blessed are the merciful” – this is a statement about who we should be becoming!
Meditation on Mercy (Charles Spurgeon) (One Slide)
It is a tender mercy
It is a great mercy
It is undeserved mercy
It is rich mercy
It is abounding mercy
It is unfailing mercy
Promise: We will be blessed, and we will receive mercy (because we need it)!
Our community of faith can only live out its mission if God’s mercy is on display and it is woven into the fabric of our identity as the people of God.
Key Takeaways:
- Mercy is a complex theological concept rooted in God’s character and love
- God’s mercy is essential for our salvation and daily Christian life
- Christians are called to be merciful, reflecting God’s nature in their interactions
- Showing mercy involves both attitude and action
- Mercy is challenging but transformative, both for the giver and receiver
- The church’s mission and effectiveness depend on displaying God’s mercy
Scripture References:
- Matthew 5:7 (primary)
- Luke 6:36
- Ephesians 2:4-5
- Titus 3:4-7
- Lamentations 3:22-23
- Psalm 51:1
- Hosea 6:6
Stories:
- The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10)
- The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Matthew 18)
- The calling of Matthew the tax collector (Matthew 9)
- Emo Phillips’ bridge joke (illustrating religious division)
Sermon Transcript
Well, amen.
Thank you, Michael and worship team for leading us today in worship.
So, you know, by now, if you’ve joined us at all this year, our theme for 2025 is flourishing together. rooted in Christ.
And you know that we are launching this year at least a three-year journey, learning more about, exploring more deeply what it means to flourish together.
And you know that we have been in contact with the Global Flourishing Study that’s being led by Harvard University and Baylor.
And we had
At our launch weekend, we had a scholar from Harvard and a scholar from Baylor here, if y’all remember that, to help us launch the journey on that weekend.
And we are just exploring together, what does it mean to flourish as a human being?
And more particularly for us, what does it mean to flourish as a Christian?
And you know that these researchers at Harvard have isolated these six domains of that they use to evaluate human flourishing.
One of those is happiness and life satisfaction.
And so we’ve chosen this winter to give attention to that first domain, happiness.
What does the scripture teach about it?
So our theme for the winter is happiness is dot, dot, dot.
And we were reminded yesterday that happiness is a win in Tuscaloosa, just so you know.
And you know, I failed to even mention that at the 830 service, so if y’all see any of the 830 people, let them know that Auburn beat Alabama yesterday in basketball.
But nevertheless, happiness.
You know, we’ve been talking about
The biblical concept, though, of happiness.
What does the Bible have to say about happiness?
Because we have kind of a culturally conditioned understanding of happiness that is a little bit flippant.
Maybe it’s too surface-oriented.
Biblically, the understanding of happiness is much sturdier than that.
And we believe it’s connected to flourishing.
And so we’ve been using the Beatitudes here this winter to guide us in this study of happiness.
One of the reasons for that is because that first word in each one of the Beatitudes is makarios in Greek, which can be translated happy, blessed, fortunate.
And so today I’ve entitled the message Flourishing in Pity.
Pity is one of the synonyms for the word mercy in both the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament.
So with that said, let’s look this morning at the text.
And what I’d like to do today is just read all of the Beatitudes, and we’re going to focus on verse 7.
But let’s look at this.
If you have your copy of the New Testament, let’s look at Matthew 5.
I’ll invite you to stand with me as we honor the Lord Jesus in the reading of the gospel.
The text reads, now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down.
His disciples came to him and he began to teach them.
He said,
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
And then our focal passage today, blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Thank you.
You may be seated.
Well, here’s what I’d like to do this morning as we begin.
I’d like to do a little vocabulary work with you.
And I want us to give consideration to both the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament.
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, a little bit of Aramaic, but almost entirely in Hebrew.
But in around 250 years before Jesus, there were so many Jews who lived outside of Israel who had lost the ability to read or speak Hebrew that the Bible, what we would call the Old Testament, the Jews would have just called the Bible, was actually translated into Greek.
And the name of that translation is the Septuagint.
There were 72 scholars that translated the scripture into Greek from Hebrew.
So with that said, let me just do a little vocabulary work.
The Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, that’s the Septuagint.
It translates the Hebrew word hesed.
That is an incredibly rich word.
We’ll talk about it in a second.
It’s translated with all these different words in English.
Love, loving kindness, steadfast love, loyal love, goodness, mercy.
But that word, when it was translated by these Jewish scholars into Greek, they used the Greek word ilios, mercy, pity, compassion.
Now why is that important to us?
Well, in verse 7 of Matthew 5, which is written in Greek,
The text says, blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Elias, Elias, is the Greek word there, a derivative of it.
So that’s our word for today.
It’s used, however, when you translate the Old Testament into Greek for the word hesed.
Now the word chesed is a rich theological word.
It actually represents a cluster of words in English.
So when you’re reading your Old Testament in English, most of you read the Old Testament in English, right?
Not everybody here does, but most of us do.
And you come across this word in English, love.
Loving kindness.
Steadfast love.
Loyal love.
Goodness.
Mercy.
All of those are English translations of this one word.
And this word hesed, it appears in our Hebrew Old Testament over 250 times.
It is the word that God uses to describe his covenant love for Israel.
So it is a special word in the Old Testament.
It’s very rich in meaning.
Now let’s talk about the New Testament word, Elias.
That’s the word that’s used here.
In the Greek New Testament, it belongs in that semantic domain.
You remember we’ve been talking about semantic domains.
These are word clusters that belong together that help us more deeply understand words when they’re used in context.
And so, when that word is used, it’s translated variously in English.
Mercy, pity, love, tenderhearted, compassion, favor.
All of those words are in your English Bibles.
And they translate this one Greek word, Elias.
In other words, these two words are both rich and diverse, and yet they belong to the same semantic domain.
All of those English words I like, tenderhearted, compassionate, favor, love.
This is an awesome word in both Greek and Hebrew.
However, it’s complex.
And the reason I want to say that is because sometimes we flippantly use the word mercy.
In fact, I’ve heard it said whenever you talk about grace and mercy, those are both very rich words in the New Testament and the Old Testament.
And we throw them around somewhat flippantly.
But sometimes you hear people say, well, grace means that you get what you don’t deserve.
And mercy means you don’t get what you do deserve.
Have y’all ever heard that?
In other words, they’re a little nuanced.
Back in Alabama, we would say they’re the flip side of the same coin.
Do y’all say that in Texas?
In other words, they’re connected, but they’re different.
But here’s the problem with that.
That’s just too simplistic.
You can’t summarize grace and mercy by just saying it that simply because mercy is very complex theologically.
Okay, are y’all still with me?
So from the vocabulary, let’s do a little bit of reflection this morning, a little biblical and theological reflection because I want you to think with me about mercy.
Like I said, we throw that word around.
Sometimes something will happen and you’ll just say mercy.
You know, that’s just a word that’s in our vernacular and
But let’s claim it today and allow it to have its rich biblical and theological heritage, okay?
Mercy is a complex concept in the Bible.
It is one expression of a divine attribute of God himself.
Mercy is connected to the very personhood of God.
Flowing out of his love, God displays his compassion toward us through his mercy.
His mercy is undeserved and it is closely connected to his grace.
And so I want us to take some time this morning and just try to embrace the richness of the theological concept of mercy.
Because everybody in this room right now, everybody that’s joining us online, every single one of us, you know what you need?
The mercy of God.
And if it weren’t for the mercy of God,
Heaven help us.
So can we just stop right now and just thank God for his mercy?
Because he’s been merciful to you.
He’s been merciful to me.
Had he not been, we’d been a very different place.
His mercy, as a matter of fact, is available every day.
That’s what the book of Lamentations says.
Because of the Lord, his great love, we’re not consumed.
Because his compassions, his mercies never fail.
Jeremiah says.
In fact, they are new every morning.
Great is your faithfulness, Jeremiah says in Lamentations 3.
God’s mercy is rich.
As a matter of fact, David in Psalm 51
He pleads for God’s mercy.
Let me just give you the Hebrew words so they’ll make sense to you.
And you can see how complex it is.
Here’s Psalm 51 verse 1.
David says, have mercy on me.
Chanan is the Hebrew word.
Have mercy.
Oh God, according to your unfailing love.
Chesed.
According to your great compassion, racham, he says, blot out my transgressions.
So David calls on every aspect he can think of, of the mercy of God.
God’s mercy, God’s love, God’s compassion.
All of those Hebrew words are linked together in the same domain.
They’re all connected to the very personhood of God.
And God’s mercy is actually connected to your salvation as a Christian.
It’s connected to what God has done for us in Jesus.
His mercy.
Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 2.
He says all of us used to live among them.
He’s talking about the works of the flesh.
He says we were dead in our trespasses and sins. and we followed the prince of the power of the air.
We lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh, following his desires and thoughts.
Like the rest, he says, we were by nature deserving of wrath, but because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, hallelujah, has made us alive with Christ even when we were dead.
And our transgressions.
Paul says this in Titus.
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared.
He saved us.
Not because of the righteous things we had done.
But because of his mercy.
He saved us through the washing of rebirth.
Renewal by the Holy Spirit.
Who he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.
So that having been justified by his grace.
We might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
Paul says our very salvation, the forgiveness of sin, the rebirth that we have in Jesus, all of that flows out of the very mercy of God because God’s mercy leads to our forgiveness.
It is one of his divine attributes.
Here’s what John Piper says.
He says, God loves to show mercy.
His anger must be released by a stiff safety lock, but his mercy has a hair trigger.
I love that.
You can get to God’s anger.
You just have to work at it.
But his mercy, like a hair trigger.
He wants to pour out his mercy on you.
He’s a merciful God.
And you know what his mercy is available?
Every day.
Every day.
One pastor I read said this, it’s like there’s a mercy store, and you go in it every morning, and the guy waiting on you says, let me look at your size, let me give you the latest fashion, and outfits you in mercy, and then says, come back tomorrow, I’ll see you then.
Because you go every day to get it.
We have to have God’s mercy.
And that’s what he provides for us.
One of the pastors back in Alabama I listened to, he says, Jesus connects before he corrects.
You see, God’s mercy draws you into relationship with him.
God’s mercy brings you close to him.
And then once that happens to you and you experience his redemption and his grace and forgiveness, then this whole journey of transformation takes place.
And we’re all transformed by the mercy of God.
I love it.
I’m so grateful for the mercy of God.
However, look at what this text says.
Look back at verse 7.
He’s talking to us.
He’s not talking to God.
He’s talking to us.
And Jesus says, blessed are the merciful.
That’s us.
But I want to make sure that we understand theologically what God’s mercy is all about so that we can understand how we’re supposed to both experience it and reflect it in our everyday lives.
So that when we encounter others, we will be ambassadors for, reflectors of God’s mercy in our own relationships.
And it can be very challenging.
Mercy is powerful.
It’s transformative.
Paul the Apostle said in 1 Timothy 1 verse 13, he said, I was a blasphemer.
I was a persecutor.
I was a violent man, he says, but I was shown mercy by God.
And it transformed him.
That’s what mercy does.
So let’s talk about it in our everyday lives.
Here’s what I would say about mercy.
On a human level, mercy is the ability to feel for others.
To experience pity.
That’s why I use that word in the sermon title.
Sympathy.
Empathy for them.
And respond in grace to their need.
It embodies both an attitude and an action.
It also applies the concept of demonstrating mercy through forgiveness.
So mercy is both an attitude and an action.
Because on the one hand, as a Christian, when we encounter someone in need, we can feel for them.
We can feel their need.
It can have an effect upon us.
It can be visceral.
It’s spiritual.
It’s emotional, psychological.
It does something to us, and it should as Christians.
However, it’s not enough to just feel it, to just be empathetic.
For us as Christians, we go a step beyond that.
We don’t just feel something.
We then in turn do something based upon what we’ve experienced.
That’s mercy, where you see something, see someone, and then you choose to take action because of what you’ve seen.
That’s what Jesus did.
Now, it’s a little different word in the Greek New Testament, but how many times do you read the New Testament and it’ll say something like this?
Jesus, comma, moved with compassion, comma, did so and so.
Jesus will respond to people.
As a matter of fact, Jesus will hear people say to him, have mercy on me.
I’m a blind man, son of David, have mercy on me.
I’m a lame man, son of David, have mercy on me.
So Jesus will see people in need and he’ll respond to their need.
And so when the Bible says we’re to be merciful, what does that mean for us?
Well, it’s an attitude and an action.
Now, this isn’t necessarily good English, but who are we supposed to show mercy to?
In other words, if we’re merciful, who benefits from our mercy?
Well, I think it depends.
There are several different scenarios that are lived out in the life of a Christian.
So, for example, if we see someone in need and the Lord begins to speak to us, someone who’s suffering, someone who has found themselves victimized by whatever it may be.
There are times when you and I as Christians, when we see that and we know we feel compelled to respond, and so we give mercy toward those who need it.
Sometimes our mercy is extended to people who’ve wronged us in our personal lives.
Because if you live this life long enough, you’re going to encounter people relationally who will harm you, wrong you.
They’ll do things that are hurtful to you.
It’s very difficult.
We all have to deal with it.
And the question is, how do we respond to it?
Well, God is leading us to follow the example of Jesus and learn the discipline of forgiveness and extending mercy to people.
As hard as that is to do.
Because here’s what I’ve learned about mercy.
It’s not natural equipment.
You don’t show up on planet earth with it.
Revenge is natural equipment, not mercy.
Mercy can be very challenging.
I get it.
Merciful is difficult.
And however, the Lord is challenging us to show mercy.
We show mercy to people that are in need.
We show mercy to people who’ve wronged us.
We show mercy to people who’ve just made mistakes.
How many of y’all in this room have ever just made one mistake?
Just one.
Okay?
Look at your neighbor and say, you have messed up.
Just tell them because you know that’s true.
Okay?
Maybe we just need to say, I’ve messed up.
Guess what though?
Mercy extends.
But you know what?
It’s not natural.
You know why?
We’re better at revenge and judgment, aren’t we?
You know why I’m a good judge?
Because I know everything.
That’s why.
I do.
I know everything.
So I’m a good judge.
I’ll see somebody do something, I can judge them right then because I know everything.
I even know why they did it.
I can judge their motive because I know everything.
Right?
We’re so good at judging.
That’s natural equipment.
The world is filled with it.
Judgment, separation, division, polarization.
That’s the world we live in.
But notice what God is challenging us to do.
He’s challenging us to be merciful.
You know what, y’all?
You know who else needs mercy?
Ourselves.
Sometimes you’ve got to show mercy to yourself.
You know, we have to let people up off the mat sometimes.
Sometimes you’ve got to let yourself up off the mat, which can be really hard to do.
However, it’s the challenge.
As a matter of fact, Luke 6, verse 36, you know what Jesus said?
He said, “‘Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.'”
So learn from him.
Watch what he does and learn about mercy.
Jesus gives us an understanding of mercy to me in a couple of parables that he told.
More than just these two, but there are two at least.
One of them is a good Samaritan, Luke 10.
The other one is the unmerciful servant, Matthew 18.
Y’all remember those stories, right?
You remember the Good Samaritan?
The story is Jesus is having a conversation in Luke 10, and one of the religious scholars says to Jesus, Jesus, what must I do to obtain eternal life?
How can I find life eternal?
And Jesus said to him, you know, you’re a Bible scholar.
What do you think?
And the man says, well, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
And Jesus said, good, good job.
And then the guy said, well, I have another question.
Who’s my neighbor?
Now, Bible scholars are divided over why Jesus included that little question.
Was the person saying, hey, I want to show everybody what a good guy I am because I’m good to my neighbors?
Or was he genuinely asking, who’s my neighbor?
Jesus responds with a parable.
And Jesus says, well, let me tell you a story.
A man was on his way to Jericho and he fell among thieves.
It’s a Jew.
And he was there on the side of the road and a priest walked by.
Y’all remember what the priest did in the story?
Remember?
Just kept walking.
A Levite came by.
Remember what the Levite did?
He just passed on by.
And then Jesus said this.
And then a Samaritan came.
Now, I don’t know how to communicate to y’all the depth of feeling that this Jewish religious scholar would have had towards Samaritans.
The Jews were deeply prejudicial against Samaritans.
Now they would argue that it’s theologically rooted, or they would have argued it was theologically rooted.
As a matter of fact, a guy like this who’s asking this question wouldn’t even generally travel through Samaria.
If he was in the southern part of Israel and he had to go to the northern part of Israel, he would actually cross over the Jordan River and go way out of his way to not even go through Samaria, even though it was closer to go through Samaria because he didn’t want to touch a Samaritan.
He didn’t want to see a Samaritan.
He didn’t want a Samaritan’s shadow to touch him. because he was so prejudiced against Samaritans.
And here’s what I’d say to you.
Prejudice is prejudice, and racism is racism, and it’s always sinful, even if it’s theologically rooted.
It doesn’t really matter what’s at the root of it.
It’s still wrong.
It’s always wrong.
Always has been wrong.
Amen.
It’s always been.
It’s a sin.
So Jesus says, a Samaritan shows up.
Now, you can just imagine the crowd going, seriously, a Samaritan?
And Jesus, yeah, a Samaritan.
Guess what he did?
He, remember what he did?
Bound up the wounds. helped the man get to a place, to a hotel or whatever, told the keeper, innkeeper, look, here’s enough money to help this guy, get him what he needs, feed him.
I’ll come back by here and I’ll pay anything else that I owe you.
And then Jesus said this.
Now, which one of these proved to be a neighbor?
Now, you know what was really hard for that Jewish leader to say?
The Samaritan.
You know what he said?
The one that showed mercy.
And Jesus said, you’re right.
Go do that.
Go show mercy.
Jesus told another story, Matthew 18.
Peter comes up to Jesus and says, Lord, how many times do I have to forgive Andrew, my brother?
I’m tired of forgiving my brother.
No, that’s not really what he said.
Although some of y’all can identify with that.
He said, how many times do I have to forgive?
Seven?
And Jesus said, no, actually, 70 times seven.
In other words, just from now on.
And Jesus said, let me tell you a story.
There’s a master who decided he wanted to call in all of his accounts.
He had a guy that he had had thrown in jail, and he brought the guy to him because the guy owed him 10,000 talents.
Now, y’all, a talent in Jesus’ day was 20 years wages for a worker.
This guy owed 10,000 of those.
If you put it in today’s terms, it’s about $13 billion.
The point Jesus was making was this guy’s so deep in, there is no way out, right?
He could not pay this off.
There is no hope for him.
And Jesus says, the master looks at him and says, and the guy says, please have mercy on me.
Please, I’ll pay it if I can.
And the master just says, no, it’s okay.
You’re forgiven.
Go.
And he forgives the guy $13 billion.
Jesus says the guy leaves the master’s presence.
He goes out on the street and he sees a guy that owes him a hundred days wages.
And he grabs the guy by the throat and says, you need to pay me what you owe me.
And the guy says the very same thing he just said.
So just please give me a chance.
Let me earn it.
I’ll pay you back.
He says, no, I’ll have you thrown in jail.
So he throws him in jail.
Well, now he’s in jail.
Now he can’t work.
So he can’t pay the guy back.
And guess what Jesus said?
And somebody was watching him.
They always are.
And they came back and reported him.
And this guy, this master called the guy back in and said, you wicked servant.
And then he asked him this question in verse 33 of Matthew 18.
Should you not have shown mercy after I showed you mercy?
And then he judges this man for being unmerciful.
So the unmerciful servant.
In other words, Jesus is teaching us to show mercy, to be merciful as our Father is merciful.
So when I read this phrase, blessed are the merciful, the way I interpret that is, this is something Jesus is saying to me and you about who we are becoming.
Because again, we’re not born with this.
The Christian life is a journey.
When you become a follower of Jesus and the Lord redeems you and rescues you and saves you, His Holy Spirit then takes up dwelling in you and then begins a journey in you that’s going to last you through eternity.
On this side of the grave, it’s a time to be shaped and formed and conformed and transformed.
And so what He’s trying to do in your life is to help you become more like Jesus.
That’s what God’s Spirit’s doing right now.
And so, for example, we’ve already studied 1 Corinthians 2, verses 6 through 16.
That’s the underlying text for this whole year.
It’s about the work of the Spirit.
The Spirit of God reveals the deep things of God to you.
And the Spirit of God gives you an ability to live in a way that you could never live on your own.
Paul says you’ll see what your eyes have never seen.
You’ll hear what you’ve never thought you would hear.
You’ll begin to imagine what you could never imagine.
He says there are going to be things accomplished in you that could never be accomplished as a natural person because they’re just not naturally there for you.
You’ve got to have the work of the Spirit of God.
Mercy is one of those things.
God is going to produce mercy in you so that you can reflect the image of Christ.
And here’s what I would tell you.
It’s not easy, and it’s not going to happen accidentally.
You and I are going to have to work on it.
We’re going to have to desire it.
We’re going to have to give some time to try to figure out how to be merciful.
So can I just give you some homework this week?
It’s homework that was assigned back in the 19th century by Charles Spurgeon.
He was a British preacher in the 19th century.
Here’s what Spurgeon said.
Meditate on mercy, and here’s what he gave us.
You might want to take a picture of this.
It’s in your notes if you use the app.
You may want to write it down.
Why don’t you take this week and spend some time every day doing this right here.
Meditate on this.
What about the mercy of God?
Spurgeon said, well, think about it.
It’s a tender mercy.
It’s a great mercy.
It’s undeserved mercy.
It’s rich mercy.
It’s abounding mercy.
It’s unfailing mercy.
It’s tender.
He heals.
He cares.
He tends to us.
It’s a great mercy.
Do you know there’s nothing un-great about God?
God’s just great in every respect.
His mercy is great.
It’s undeserved.
We’re by nature children of wrath, not mercy.
It’s just God’s decision.
It’s rich.
God’s work is multilayered, multifaceted.
He is rich in mercy.
It’s abounding.
He doesn’t give just a little bit.
That’s not how it works.
He overwhelms you with his mercy.
And you know what?
It’s unfailing.
Never fails.
He’s a merciful God.
It always fits.
It’s always perfect.
And guess what?
When you get it one morning, come back the next morning, and you need it all over again.
As a matter of fact, here’s the promise.
Don’t you notice the promise?
What does Jesus say in verse 7?
If you’re merciful, you’re blessed, he says, and we’ll receive mercy.
Now, why did he say that?
Well, because we need it.
It’s funny.
This is an interesting blessing.
You’re blessed, you’re fortunate, you’re happy, but
You’re filled, you’re full, but guess what else?
You’ll be shown mercy because you need it.
And if you will live this life in his presence and be a person who shows mercy, you’ll understand the richness of how you’ve received it and what it does for you.
Now, let me just say this and I’ll be done.
Why does it matter?
I mean, why does it matter whether or not we’re merciful?
Here’s what I’d tell you.
I believe our community of faith, our church, can only live out its mission if God’s mercy is on display and is woven into the fabric of our identity as a people of God.
Our very mission is at stake.
If we’re not merciful as the people of God, we’re going to fail in our mission.
We’re not going to be able to accomplish what God puts in front of us, and we’re not going to be able to live as the people of God if we’re not merciful.
Because you know what?
We live in a world right now that needs to see it, know it, and experience it because this world we’re in right now, 2025, I’ve been on this planet for a little while.
This is, for us, in my adult lifetime, I would say the most judgmental, polarized society in my memory.
We are quick to judge and separate and polarize.
I know y’all have heard this joke, but it’s one of my all-time favorite jokes.
I’m going to tell it to you again.
Some of you may not have heard it.
Emo Phillips tells this joke.
He says he was walking across a bridge one day, and there was a guy standing on the side of the bridge about to jump off the bridge.
And he yelled to him.
He said, hey, man, what are you doing?
And the guy said, I’m about to jump.
He said, don’t jump.
The guy said, well, nobody loves me.
He said, hey, man, God loves you.
The guy looks at him.
He said, let me ask you, are you a Christian or are you a Jew?
And the guy looked at him and said, well, I’m a Christian.
He said, me too.
See there?
Are you a Catholic or a Protestant?
He said, well, I’m a Protestant.
He said, me too.
See there?
You got people who understand you.
He said, what kind of Protestant are you?
He said, well, I’m a Baptist.
Me too.
He said, are you a Northern Baptist or a Southern Baptist?
And the guy on the bridge said, well, I’m a Northern Baptist.
He said, me too.
Are you a northern liberal Baptist or are you a northern conservative Baptist?
He said, well, I’m a northern conservative Baptist.
He said, me too.
See there?
He said, are you a northern conservative Baptist of the Great Lakes region or are you a northern conservative Baptist of the east region?
He said, well, I’m a northern conservative Baptist of the Great Lakes region.
Me too.
He said, are you a northern conservative Baptist of the Great Lakes region council of 1879 or 1912?
And the guy said, well, 1912.
Emo said, I just pushed him in and said, die, you heretic.
Well, unfortunately, that’s my world right now.
You can agree on 90 things.
You get to number 91, and I’m done.
We disagree on that.
We can’t have fellowship together.
It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.
What I would say is, that we have got to figure out mercy.
Because you know what we are?
First Baptist of Arlington?
We’re a colony of heaven.
We’re an outpost of the kingdom of God right here in Arlington.
And we’re supposed to be demonstrating the very presence of God, the power of the gospel that transforms lives.
We’re living in community with each other, reflecting God’s glory and
And that means mercy is to be on display.
You know who was well acquainted with mercy?
Matthew.
Matthew, the guy that wrote this.
You remember who Matthew was?
He was a tax collector.
What a great job in the first century for a Jew.
It was awful.
You made a lot of money.
You just didn’t have very many friends.
As a matter of fact, all your friends were tax collectors.
And you know what the religious leaders called them all?
Just sinners.
Just lumped them all together because they had sold out the Jews to the Romans.
Matthew tells his story in Matthew 9.
He says he was at the booth one day working.
And Jesus came along and looked at him and said, I want you to leave all this and come follow me.
You remember that story?
And the Bible says Matthew left it all behind.
His success, his stability, his identity, and he left.
Jesus went to his house that night and had dinner with him, and guess who was there?
A bunch of tax collectors, because that’s the only people that would eat with Matthew.
Well, the religious leaders showed up, and they looked at Jesus and they said, wait a minute, why are you eating with these tax collectors, these sinners?
You remember what Jesus said?
Jesus looked at them and he said, he said, you know, it’s not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick.
And then Jesus said this.
I don’t know if y’all have read it in a while.
But Jesus says this in Matthew 9.
He says this to religious leaders.
Go and learn what this means.
Now I want y’all to take that in for a second.
How many times did Jesus tell us to go learn something?
He says, go and learn what this means.
And they looked at Jesus and Jesus said, I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
And then they left.
Well, what in the world is Jesus talking about?
Well, Jesus knew his Bible.
And he’s making a reference to Hosea.
Hosea is that first minor prophet in the Old Testament.
Eighth century prophet to Israel, the northern kingdom.
When Hosea was alive, Israel was in rebellion against God.
Israel was divided into Israel in the north, Judah in the south.
Hosea preached to those in the north.
He challenged them.
He tried to call them to repentance.
Some of the saddest words in the Bible are in Hosea 4.
Here’s what Hosea 4 says.
Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in this land.
And here’s what he says.
There’s no faithfulness, there’s no love, and no acknowledgement of God in the land.
I want you to hear that.
God said through Hosea, there’s no faithfulness, there’s no love, and nobody knows me.
Now you’re still carrying out all the rituals.
You’re still going to worship.
You’re still offering up sacrifices.
But there’s no faithfulness in your heart.
There’s no love in your heart.
And you don’t know me.
Then this text that Jesus quoted.
What can I do with you Ephraim?
Hosea 6.
What can I do with you Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist.
Like the early dew that disappears.
In other words your love is so flippant.
I cut you into pieces with my prophets.
I killed you with the words of my mouth, and my judgments go forth like the sun.
Then he says this, but I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings.
God said through Hosea, I don’t want all your rituals.
You think you’re doing that to earn my favor.
I don’t want them to be empty.
You don’t know me.
You don’t love me.
You’re not living for me.
And yet you think you can show up and do something religious and I’ll excuse it all.
I won’t.
I don’t want all that.
I want you.
I want you to have me.
I want my heart to be alive in you.
I want you to be faithful.
I want you to love.
I want you to show mercy because that’s what I do.
Have that and all the rituals will follow along after it.
Jesus was saying to those Pharisees, you’ve got all the rituals.
You go to the temple.
You’re reading the scripture, but you don’t have any love in your heart anymore.
And you don’t even know what mercy is.
If you knew what mercy was, you’d be celebrating that I’m in this tax collector’s home having dinner because this is an opportunity for the transformation of all these people in this room right now.
But you can’t see it.
Jesus said, go learn about that.
What a word, y’all.
It’s a word to me and you.
What is the Lord saying to us?
He is saying, show mercy.
That’s what I want.
Faithfulness, love.
And when you do that, you’re like me.
And if you do it, you’ll be blessed, and you’ll know what it really means to receive mercy.
Let’s live that out, y’all, and be the church God’s called us to be for this era.
May it be so.
Let’s pray together.
Lord, we love you.
And we thank you for your love.