WEBVTT 00:00:04.147 --> 00:00:08.835 How many of you would say that you are characterized by being a merciful person? 00:00:08.835 --> 00:00:11.201 Come on now. 00:00:11.201 --> 00:00:15.410 Am I in the right room? 00:00:15.410 --> 00:00:23.147 Okay, let me ask it like this how many of you would like to be characterized as being a merciful person? 00:00:23.147 --> 00:00:24.710 Okay, very good, very good. 00:00:24.710 --> 00:00:29.391 Well, we're going to learn some more about that tonight and I'm going to make a special introduction. 00:00:30.100 --> 00:00:37.000 Tonight, we have a special guest that's going to be speaking to us and that is this young lady right here. 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:39.945 Come on down. 00:00:39.945 --> 00:00:52.348 So, those of you who don't know her, this is my daughter, hannah Silverberg, and Amy's daughter, our daughter, yeah, and I feel like the father with Jesus tonight. 00:00:52.348 --> 00:01:03.427 This is my daughter, in whom I'm well pleased, and I mean that and so really excited about what she's going to share with us tonight, and it's important, it's really important. 00:01:03.427 --> 00:01:04.704 So let's pray, we'll get started. 00:01:05.486 --> 00:01:13.402 Thank you, father, for this time. 00:01:13.402 --> 00:01:19.859 Thank you, lord, that you gave this great sermon, and it's something that we can learn from and we also can practically apply the things that you have taught us in this sermon. 00:01:19.859 --> 00:01:26.983 So we ask that you'd help us tonight to have ears to hear, and not only to listen, but that we would be willing to obey Lord. 00:01:26.983 --> 00:01:35.831 It's the cry of all of our heart tonight for us to become merciful people, and so we ask that you'd open our eyes and our hearts to that very truth. 00:01:35.831 --> 00:01:41.224 Help Hannah as she communicates these things to us In Jesus' name, amen. 00:01:41.224 --> 00:01:44.789 Amen name. 00:01:44.808 --> 00:01:45.308 Amen, all right. 00:01:45.308 --> 00:01:49.274 Well, hey everybody, how's it going? 00:01:49.274 --> 00:01:51.956 I'm going to go ahead and start out. 00:01:51.956 --> 00:01:58.724 I'm going to read the whole passage, matthew 5, 1 through 12. 00:01:58.724 --> 00:02:00.367 We'll just kind of get the context and then we'll get into things. 00:02:00.367 --> 00:02:00.468 Okay? 00:02:00.487 --> 00:02:11.390 So, 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. 00:02:11.390 --> 00:02:15.189 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 00:02:15.189 --> 00:02:18.449 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 00:02:18.449 --> 00:02:23.752 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 00:02:23.752 --> 00:02:25.786 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be satisfied. 00:02:25.786 --> 00:02:27.722 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 00:02:27.722 --> 00:02:31.592 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 00:02:31.592 --> 00:02:35.668 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 00:02:35.668 --> 00:02:41.247 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 00:02:41.247 --> 00:02:48.526 And blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you, falsely on my account. 00:02:48.526 --> 00:02:55.406 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 00:02:57.650 --> 00:03:22.024 So we've been planning this teaching, this Bible study for a few six months now for the church, and I had a feeling my dad was going to ask me to teach one of these sessions, mainly because every time we talked about it he said you're going to teach one of these sessions and so and I was always like, well, that's so far away, we'll deal with that then. 00:03:22.024 --> 00:03:29.823 So when I saw his name pop up on my phone with the do you want to teach on Blessed or the Merciful, I wasn't too surprised. 00:03:29.823 --> 00:03:38.289 But I was surprised at my reaction because my hesitation wasn't to teaching but specifically to teaching this topic. 00:03:38.289 --> 00:03:47.305 And I was surprised by that because, honestly, after reading that list, blessed or the Merciful feels kind of easy right, compared to some of the other ones. 00:03:47.305 --> 00:03:49.671 We're talking about persecution and all of those things. 00:03:49.671 --> 00:03:58.804 But the thing that made me hesitant about this one is, it felt, a bit ominous Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 00:03:58.804 --> 00:04:01.930 Well, what if I'm not merciful? 00:04:01.930 --> 00:04:03.653 Right, what does that mean? 00:04:03.653 --> 00:04:10.527 And really my hesitation with that is it kind of sounded to me at first hearing like I thought of the mercy of salvation. 00:04:10.527 --> 00:04:17.045 It's like, well, if I'm not merciful, is the Lord going to be merciful to me, and so I was really. 00:04:17.045 --> 00:04:24.511 I was like, okay, if I'm hesitant about this, that means I need to dig into my theology about it and figure out what I think and why I'm hesitating. 00:04:32.620 --> 00:04:35.733 So I dug into studying and I found this quote by Charles Spurgeon, and it's just so good and I tried to take a little snippet out of it. 00:04:35.733 --> 00:04:39.702 But it's just Charles Spurgeon, you know what I mean, and so it's a little bit of a long quote. 00:04:39.702 --> 00:04:54.170 And I know I just started talking and I just read a long passage of scripture and I'm going to read a semi long quote, but I need you to lock in, okay, because we're theologians tonight and we're going to leave feeling so smart, studying drill surgeon, you ready, all right? 00:04:54.170 --> 00:05:05.649 You remember that at the commencement of our homilies upon this sermon on the Mount, we noticed that our Lord's subject was not how we are to be saved, but who are saved. 00:05:05.649 --> 00:05:40.750 He is not here describing the way of salvation at all that he does in many other places but he here gives up the signs and evidences of the work of grace in the soul, so that we should greatly err, if we should, that we must be merciful in order to obtain mercy, any such legal notion, which would be clean, contrary to the entire current of Scripture and directly opposed to the fundamental doctrine of justification by faith in Christ. 00:05:40.750 --> 00:05:46.701 I ask you to notice that these persons are blessed already and have obtained mercy already. 00:05:46.701 --> 00:06:04.848 Long before they became merciful, god was merciful to them, and before the full promise was given them, as in our text, that they should obtain yet further mercy, they had already obtained the great mercy of a renewed heart which had made them merciful. 00:06:04.848 --> 00:06:07.951 That is clear from the connection of the text. 00:06:08.954 --> 00:06:09.975 Isn't that so good? 00:06:09.975 --> 00:06:16.615 That just really puts to rest that idea, this wrestling of am I trying to earn the Lord's favor? 00:06:16.615 --> 00:06:20.711 Am I trying to earn his mercy toward me by my own actions? 00:06:20.711 --> 00:06:24.471 Because that is the longing inside of all of us. 00:06:24.471 --> 00:06:25.956 We want to control our own salvation. 00:06:25.956 --> 00:06:26.480 Because that is the longing inside of all of us. 00:06:26.480 --> 00:06:32.642 We want to control our own salvation right, which we want to fight against the hand of mercy of the Lord in our lives in order to gain control of it. 00:06:32.642 --> 00:06:47.569 And so we're just going to reject that idea of okay, I'm trying to fight and prove to the Lord that I deserve something from him, and instead I'm acknowledging that anything I can do that is worth doing is because of the God who did it all for me. 00:06:47.569 --> 00:06:56.151 Praise God, which means also, there is more mercy that we can obtain by being merciful. 00:06:56.151 --> 00:07:00.228 This is a bonus mercy, right, and so this is even better, it's even more fun. 00:07:00.228 --> 00:07:03.528 So we've heard all of these. 00:07:03.528 --> 00:07:05.064 Y'all heard all of these teachings. 00:07:05.064 --> 00:07:09.348 I listened to some of them on the podcast and they were great, but it's really leading up. 00:07:09.387 --> 00:07:11.379 The Beatitudes are this journey right? 00:07:11.379 --> 00:07:15.629 This is the way of the redeemed, this is the way of Christ, and so we're. 00:07:15.629 --> 00:07:17.221 They all build on one another. 00:07:17.221 --> 00:07:18.824 They're not apart from anything. 00:07:18.824 --> 00:07:24.504 So throughout this journey, it's really been the emptying of oneself we're setting. 00:07:24.504 --> 00:07:33.293 We're being poor in spirit, recognizing our need, mourning our sin and being comforted, being meek and kingdom focused, and then being desperate for righteousness. 00:07:33.293 --> 00:07:34.661 All of things. 00:07:34.661 --> 00:07:38.172 Things kind of build on each other in our chain of sanctification. 00:07:38.172 --> 00:07:53.869 We start out our journey by emptying ourselves, acknowledging and being grieved by our own sin, and then, from that place, we can turn to the Lord to seek righteousness, desiring to be pleasing in his sight, and so then we're hungering and we're thirsting for righteousness. 00:07:53.869 --> 00:08:00.360 We're seeking righteousness, and then the first thing he tells us to do is to open our heart and hands and be merciful to one another. 00:08:00.360 --> 00:08:12.502 This is really the first step, where we turn from inward to outward, where other people are a part of this journey that we're on with the Lord, because we're not meant to be sanctified alone. 00:08:15.286 --> 00:08:21.624 So the Greek word for merciful is elemones. 00:08:21.624 --> 00:08:23.487 I'll try, that's the best I can do. 00:08:23.487 --> 00:08:28.615 And it's also used in Hebrews 2 17 to highlight the gospel. 00:08:28.615 --> 00:08:30.803 Therefore, he had to be made. 00:08:30.803 --> 00:08:31.846 This is referring to Jesus. 00:08:31.846 --> 00:08:43.413 Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 00:08:43.413 --> 00:08:47.605 So this leads to our first point about mercy. 00:08:47.605 --> 00:08:49.721 Mercy costs. 00:08:49.721 --> 00:09:01.003 When Jesus stood up and he taught this sermon, he already knew that for him, mercy meant the cross, and he chose to teach it anyway. 00:09:03.017 --> 00:09:09.268 We have softened mercy in our minds and tried to make it on par with compassion or sympathy. 00:09:09.268 --> 00:09:25.437 It's easier to excuse ourselves from this calling that way because we can say well, I'm just more of a straightforward person, a straight shooter or empathy isn't in my top five strengths, so it's just not who God made me to be. 00:09:25.437 --> 00:09:31.451 Well, yes, it is, and he's calling us all to it. 00:09:31.451 --> 00:09:44.076 If we decide that mercy is something that we are naturally inclined to, based on personality, then this walk of sanctification is going to be way easier for some of us, and some of us are completely excused for it from it. 00:09:44.076 --> 00:10:09.308 All of us have things that are going to be easier and harder for us in the walk of Christ, based on who he's made us to be, because we're all made differently, in the image of God, to reflect his character, and so, yes, maybe your nature naturally reflects mercy easier than other things, but that doesn't mean that it's not something that needs to be refined and balanced by the Holy Spirit in your daily walk. 00:10:11.475 --> 00:10:15.447 My daughter has been watching the VeggieTales Jonah movie recently. 00:10:15.447 --> 00:10:17.000 Has anyone seen the Jonah movie? 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:23.024 Yes, of course, a classic, and it's got a lot about compassion and mercy in it. 00:10:23.024 --> 00:10:30.749 And Pirate Paw Grape defines mercy as giving someone a second chance, even when they don't deserve it. 00:10:30.749 --> 00:10:33.042 This is the cost of mercy. 00:10:33.042 --> 00:10:41.046 It's not mercy, if they didn't do something, if someone hasn't done something to you, to require you to hand it back to them. 00:10:41.046 --> 00:10:47.147 Right, and for those of us that are justice, oriented mercy feels like a tough pill to swallow. 00:10:47.147 --> 00:10:47.648 Sometimes. 00:10:47.648 --> 00:10:57.457 Oriented mercy feels like a tough pill to swallow sometimes because it can feel like we are allowing people off of the hook instead of receiving instead of them receiving what they or what we think we deserve. 00:10:58.841 --> 00:11:01.566 Holiness is not the enemy of mercy. 00:11:01.566 --> 00:11:14.844 Legalism is To be merciful, is to acknowledge the wrong, to count the cost and then to decide to take the hit ourselves instead of handing it to the person who offended us. 00:11:14.844 --> 00:11:16.889 This is the gospel. 00:11:16.889 --> 00:11:27.440 We are the ones who have sinned against a holy God and that God himself, in his loving kindness, counted the cost and took the hit anyway. 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:31.365 Justice paid for with mercy. 00:11:31.365 --> 00:11:38.046 Psalm 85, 10, says mercy and truth are met together and righteousness and peace have kissed each other. 00:11:40.035 --> 00:11:46.499 Perhaps we fall on the other side of mercy and justice and shy away from justice as a whole, thinking it kind of cruel and unkind. 00:11:46.499 --> 00:12:00.248 Now I have two daughters and if one of them decides that her favorite pastime is going to be taking her sister's toys Could go either way right now. 00:12:00.248 --> 00:12:03.662 Honestly, they decide, okay, I'm going to take my sister's toys all the time. 00:12:03.662 --> 00:12:06.278 And I decide, okay, I want to be a merciful mother. 00:12:06.278 --> 00:12:15.485 So I am not going to correct, to discipline my child because I want to be kind to her, so I'm not going to step in in any way. 00:12:15.485 --> 00:12:16.916 What's the problem with that? 00:12:16.916 --> 00:12:19.602 This is it you can answer for real? 00:12:19.602 --> 00:12:22.611 Oh, the other child, right? 00:12:22.611 --> 00:12:24.475 Or what about the child at the playground? 00:12:24.475 --> 00:12:26.340 Or what about anybody else? 00:12:26.340 --> 00:12:32.538 You know, we can't raise people with this expectation of I can just snatch whatever I want, right? 00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:37.769 Cs Lewis said that mercy detached from justice grows unmerciful. 00:12:37.769 --> 00:12:44.408 If we completely separate this idea of mercy from justice, then we end up in the same place. 00:12:44.408 --> 00:12:50.375 Now I'm the one who is injuring my other child because I am not walking in my responsibility to correct. 00:12:50.375 --> 00:12:55.644 But if I then go and discipline my child, who is wrong? 00:12:55.644 --> 00:13:03.269 If the heart of impatience and annoyance, then I'm not walking in mercy either. 00:13:03.269 --> 00:13:04.312 Right, it's all about this. 00:13:04.312 --> 00:13:05.518 Balance is in between. 00:13:05.518 --> 00:13:08.087 We can't fall on just one side or just the other. 00:13:08.087 --> 00:13:16.578 All of the Christian walk is learning to walk in the rhythms of grace, allowing the Lord to inform our steps instead of just following a list of rules. 00:13:16.578 --> 00:13:23.938 We cannot use God's call to mercy as a reason to turn the other way in situations where we should speak up. 00:13:23.938 --> 00:13:32.360 So to summarize it to be passive, to sin that will send people to hell is not godly mercy, it is fear of man. 00:13:32.360 --> 00:13:41.229 And to be passionate against sin and not brokenhearted for the sinner is not godly justice, it is pride. 00:13:41.229 --> 00:13:49.903 Micah 6.8 says he has shown you, o mortal, what is good and what does the Lord require of you? 00:13:49.903 --> 00:13:55.628 To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. 00:13:57.956 --> 00:14:00.183 Our second point tonight is mercy heals. 00:14:00.183 --> 00:14:14.667 When we go through painful things in life, when we are betrayed or wronged or wounded, our natural inclinations tell us to either batten down the hatches and hunker down, or to lash back out at the person who has wounded us. 00:14:14.667 --> 00:14:17.563 We can see lots of examples in scripture of this. 00:14:17.563 --> 00:14:18.246 Can you all think of any? 00:14:18.246 --> 00:14:25.225 Nope, okay. 00:14:26.028 --> 00:14:31.440 So uh, when I thought of was the woman in John eight who is caught in adultery and Jesus turns her. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:34.346 She's ripped out of bed, she's brought in front of all of these men. 00:14:34.346 --> 00:14:45.047 They want to stone her and Jesus turns her accusers away by instructing those without sin to throw the first stone, sending her away with mercy to go and sin no more. 00:14:45.047 --> 00:14:50.018 He didn't allow her to continue in the sin that she was in. 00:14:50.018 --> 00:14:57.279 He corrected her for her wrong, but he also didn't allow her, he didn't just judge her without mercy. 00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:03.403 He gave her the grace of a second chance to make the right choice, to turn away from the wrong. 00:15:03.403 --> 00:15:09.701 Another example I thought of was the woman who poured perfume on Jesus' feet and wiped them with her hair. 00:15:09.701 --> 00:15:13.625 She was forgiven much and so she loved much. 00:15:15.155 --> 00:15:19.106 To be merciful in the face of our pain allows the Lord to be our healer. 00:15:19.106 --> 00:15:30.287 When we lay down our right to shake our fists in what we have deemed to be righteous anger, we can open our hands to be met with grace and we obtain mercy. 00:15:30.287 --> 00:15:36.187 Part of the healing of mercy and part of obtaining mercy when we give it. 00:15:36.187 --> 00:15:44.043 When we forgive others, we can let go of that poison that lives within our hearts, and the Lord's mercy to us is healing in that right. 00:15:44.424 --> 00:15:45.537 Have you all seen those videos? 00:15:45.537 --> 00:15:46.259 In the courtroom? 00:15:46.259 --> 00:15:47.865 There's like two different sides. 00:15:47.865 --> 00:15:57.216 You can see where someone is found guilty of a crime and the family speaks to the offender who killed their family member, whatever it may be, and they can speak. 00:15:57.216 --> 00:16:08.423 Some of them say, like you deserve to rot in jail, you know, and they really come after them and because they're wounded and they're hurt, this person did the wrong thing against them and they want justice to be served in that way. 00:16:08.423 --> 00:16:16.466 But have you also seen the videos of family members who have been wronged, who have had these horrible things happen as a result of someone else's sin? 00:16:16.466 --> 00:16:22.403 Then look at them and say what you did was wrong, but I'm a Christian and God told me to forgive you. 00:16:23.514 --> 00:16:42.986 And the difference not just in that courtroom, not for the criminal, but for the person saying those words when we can hand things over to the Lord, we're not only allowing the Lord's mercy to be exemplified in our mercy towards other people and them being healed, but we're also opening up our own hearts for the Lord to heal us. 00:16:42.986 --> 00:16:47.619 That's part of the mercy that we can obtain when we are merciful. 00:16:47.619 --> 00:16:54.517 And sometimes the thing that keeps us from showing mercy isn't just if we're really honest. 00:16:54.517 --> 00:17:01.880 It's not just the hurt that's done to us from other people or from circumstances, but it's anger at the Lord for allowing it to happen. 00:17:01.880 --> 00:17:18.546 Sometimes our fight against mercy is really our fight against the God, who we think wasn't merciful, but we can know the truth of his character and the truth of his word and we can rely on him and trust that. 00:17:18.546 --> 00:17:25.776 Okay, lord, I don't understand this, but I am going to open my hands anyway and I am going to trust that you will reveal yourself to me. 00:17:27.640 --> 00:17:30.945 The lie of the enemy is that we just need to get to a place of neutrality. 00:17:30.945 --> 00:17:41.362 Right, if I can just get to a place where I don't care about this so much anymore, where he doesn't get me all fired up anymore, then I'm good and God's good with me, because I'm not angry at them anymore. 00:17:41.362 --> 00:17:48.396 But the truth is that neutrality is a lie and to not be merciful is to be merciless. 00:17:48.396 --> 00:18:11.938 We can either walk in abundant mercy, knowing that we are bookended by the grace given to us by the Lord, or we can withhold from those around us, poisoning ourselves and withholding mercy from ourselves when we choose I'm not going to give mercy to that person because I think they deserve justice then we are the ones who are stopping up the flow of mercy from the Lord to ourselves. 00:18:11.938 --> 00:18:16.086 Holding on to our own wounds can poison us. 00:18:16.086 --> 00:18:20.857 Where mercy heals, mercy transforms. 00:18:21.961 --> 00:18:28.460 When I was studying this, I kept being drawn to the story of Peter, especially at the Last Supper and throughout the story of the crucifixion. 00:18:28.460 --> 00:18:34.260 And Peter is so confident at the Last Supper and he's saying I will never turn away from you. 00:18:34.260 --> 00:18:35.806 Lord, like, let's go get him. 00:18:35.806 --> 00:18:41.442 And even in the garden he pulls out a sword and he comes, he's, he's guns ablaze and he is ready to go. 00:18:41.442 --> 00:18:43.144 But Peter. 00:18:43.144 --> 00:18:44.928 But Jesus told Peter right. 00:18:44.928 --> 00:18:48.503 And he said you're going to deny me three times before the rooster crows. 00:18:48.503 --> 00:18:51.655 And so I think that's partially why Peter's so ready to go. 00:18:51.655 --> 00:18:54.101 He's got something to prove out here tonight, right? 00:18:54.101 --> 00:18:58.738 And then things don't go the way that he thought that they would. 00:18:58.738 --> 00:19:00.981 You know, jesus says no, that's not how we're doing things. 00:19:00.981 --> 00:19:15.440 Jesus shows mercy to the Roman soldier coming to crucify him, coming to take him away, and he heals him anyway. 00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:15.901 And so then they go. 00:19:15.921 --> 00:19:20.712 In Luke 22, 61 says the Lord turned and looked at Peter after Peter had denied him for the third time. 00:19:20.712 --> 00:19:22.097 So they go, and Peter is kind of hanging back. 00:19:22.097 --> 00:19:25.019 He doesn't want to be associated with Jesus because he doesn't know how this is going to go. 00:19:25.019 --> 00:19:31.242 They're really outnumbered and Jesus isn't letting him fight and his strength is in his own fist, so he doesn't want anything to do with it, right? 00:19:31.242 --> 00:19:32.755 And so he's standing out there. 00:19:32.795 --> 00:19:33.516 Do you know this man? 00:19:33.516 --> 00:19:34.037 No, I don't. 00:19:34.037 --> 00:19:34.537 Do you know this man? 00:19:34.537 --> 00:19:35.038 No, I don't. 00:19:35.038 --> 00:19:35.637 Do you know this man? 00:19:35.637 --> 00:19:36.138 No, I don't. 00:19:36.138 --> 00:19:46.190 And the rooster crowed and it says that, peter, can you imagine this is the worst moment in human history. 00:19:46.190 --> 00:19:54.096 This is leading up to this right, the crucifixion of Jesus. 00:19:54.096 --> 00:19:54.897 This is one of his very closest friends. 00:19:54.897 --> 00:20:01.119 Can you imagine being Peter and looking in the eye of the person you love the most, who has loved you the most, who knows you deeper than anyone else? 00:20:01.119 --> 00:20:12.375 And you just denied them in that moment than anyone else, and you just denied them in that moment and Peter went out and wept bitterly. 00:20:12.375 --> 00:20:18.638 I can't imagine that shame and self-disgust and hatred after that moment that Peter must have felt. 00:20:18.659 --> 00:20:24.428 And then three days of silence and grief and knowing that you, that he wasn't there. 00:20:24.428 --> 00:20:35.214 John was the only one and the Marys were there at the cross and none of the other disciples were there. 00:20:35.214 --> 00:20:46.696 And then in John's gospel, you know, the women come back and they say, hey, the tomb is empty, the savior is risen and Peter and John take off in a foot race to the tomb and it says that John won the race, which is a hilarious fact to put in the Bible. 00:20:46.696 --> 00:20:48.019 Can you believe that? 00:20:48.019 --> 00:20:49.522 The Lord let John put that in there? 00:20:49.522 --> 00:21:06.186 But I wonder, I wonder if Peter held back that day on his run to the cross, was he afraid to see the God he had forsaken and betrayed, the God that he boasted so proudly to? 00:21:06.186 --> 00:21:08.902 I will never turn away from you, I'll be the one there with you. 00:21:08.902 --> 00:21:10.987 And then, that night, turned away. 00:21:10.987 --> 00:21:12.958 And he knows that. 00:21:12.958 --> 00:21:15.105 Jesus knows it too, because Jesus looked at him. 00:21:15.105 --> 00:21:19.741 And we've all felt that way on some level, haven't we? 00:21:19.741 --> 00:21:26.465 We have all known when we have wronged the Lord and instead of running to him, we slow our steps in our shame. 00:21:29.513 --> 00:21:36.701 But a little while later, the disciples went fishing and Jesus appeared on the beach and he told them one more time to cast the net on the other side of the boat. 00:21:36.701 --> 00:21:52.315 And Peter recognized Jesus and jumped into the water one more time to get to Jesus, always exuberant Peter, anxious for Jesus, with his fear in the way, and the verses say so. 00:21:52.315 --> 00:21:57.737 When they had eaten breakfast, jesus said to Simon Peter Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? 00:21:57.737 --> 00:22:00.971 And he said to them yes, lord, you know that I love you. 00:22:00.971 --> 00:22:03.396 He said to him feed my lambs. 00:22:03.396 --> 00:22:09.211 He said to him again a second time Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? 00:22:09.211 --> 00:22:12.614 He said to him yes, lord, you know that I love you. 00:22:13.515 --> 00:22:17.136 And maybe Peter was grieved because he wanted the Lord to believe him. 00:22:17.136 --> 00:22:36.953 He was upset that Jesus kept asking, as if he wasn't giving him the right answer. 00:22:36.953 --> 00:22:41.063 And maybe Peter was grieved because he remembered it the last time. 00:22:41.063 --> 00:22:45.759 He'd been asked a question three times and he gave the wrong answer that time. 00:22:45.759 --> 00:22:52.478 And so he said to him Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. 00:22:52.478 --> 00:22:55.723 And Jesus said to him feed my sheep. 00:22:55.723 --> 00:23:08.272 Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger you girded yourself and walked where you wished, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish. 00:23:08.272 --> 00:23:13.323 And this he spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. 00:23:13.323 --> 00:23:17.921 And when he had spoken this, he said to him follow me. 00:23:20.570 --> 00:23:29.688 Jesus' mercy to Peter wasn't excusing him, but it was meeting him in his pain and healing him in that mercy. 00:23:29.688 --> 00:23:35.792 That connection point Jesus so easily and righteously could have said get behind me, satan. 00:23:35.792 --> 00:23:43.422 Once more to Peter he could have said you betrayed me, you did not stand the test, you did not walk in the light, I want nothing to do with you as a follower. 00:23:43.422 --> 00:23:59.570 And instead he said follow me and I have a job for you, and one day for you. 00:23:59.570 --> 00:24:17.278 And one day Peter given another chance, a bigger chance, and one day he was not the man who turned away and denied relationship with the Savior who was led to the cross, but he was the man led to the cross because of his relationship with Jesus, because he would not deny it, and he was crucified upside down because he deemed himself unworthy to die the way his Savior did. 00:24:18.942 --> 00:24:32.585 The mercy of Christ transformed Peter, and the mercy of Christ transforms us, who we were before unmerciful, harsh, self-centered, unmerciful, harsh, self-centered slaves to sin. 00:24:32.585 --> 00:24:41.608 We have been called to a higher standard and we have been given the ability to be transformed by the mercy of the gospel. 00:24:41.608 --> 00:24:46.019 And our last point tonight is that mercy triumphs. 00:24:46.019 --> 00:24:50.861 We will never be more merciful than the Lord will be. 00:24:50.861 --> 00:24:56.778 You can never be more merciful to someone else who is asking something of you that you do not want to give. 00:24:56.778 --> 00:25:02.858 Your mercy to them will never be greater than the Lord's mercy to you, because it's his mercy that you're spending anyway. 00:25:02.858 --> 00:25:09.782 You couldn't come up with it on your own strength if you tried, and just like we see in the parable of the talents. 00:25:09.782 --> 00:25:14.651 We who are faithful with little will be given more to be faithful with. 00:25:14.651 --> 00:25:20.201 Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy. 00:25:21.564 --> 00:25:25.071 And let's pray, lord. 00:25:25.112 --> 00:25:32.903 We just thank you that you are the merciful King who has chosen to bestow your mercy on each and every one of us. 00:25:32.903 --> 00:25:56.900 And, lord, we ask your forgiveness for the times that each and every one of us have shied away from offering mercy to one another, when we would have held our own sense of justice and righteousness to be dearer and more important than your call to pick up our cross every day and to walk in the way of the faithful. 00:25:56.900 --> 00:26:01.878 Lord, I just ask that you would do what your word promised. 00:26:01.878 --> 00:26:02.560 We know you will. 00:26:02.560 --> 00:26:24.355 Lord, we ask that you would bestow mercy upon us, that you would open our eyes to the ways that we are withholding and that you would enable us, with the ability to be merciful to those around us, to live with open hands and open hearts, and with mercy that dwells in our hearts and our minds as much as it does in our mouths and hands. 00:26:24.355 --> 00:26:31.798 Lord, we thank you that you are faithful and just to do what you have promised To you. 00:26:31.798 --> 00:26:32.499 The only right. 00:26:32.499 --> 00:26:35.945 God be the glory, amen.