This morning, we are in week 7 of a sermon series that I have entitled Revival. My hope in this series is to lead us into a deeper experience of God, that God would give us greater spiritual life and vitality both individually and collectively, that we would experience more of His love and power, and that through us, He would bring His salvation and redemption to our world.
Earlier in this series, I mentioned what Richard Lovelace calls the two precursors of revival: an increased awareness of the holiness of God, and an increased awareness of the depth of our sin. By holiness, I mean that God is transcendentally separate from us in His perfection. By sin I mean our rebellion against God, our inability to measure up to His holy standard, and our brokenness. You want to see revival in your life and in the church? Pray for those two things.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to dive deeper into the second part, the awareness of the depth of our sin, and to do so by looking at the Beatitudes, the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. The beatitudes describe the blessed life, the man or woman who is favored by God. In this sense, if we want to live a life that is blessed or favored by God, then the beatitudes are something we should all pay close attention to and strive to live out. But on the other hand, the characteristics emphasized by Jesus are incredibly countercultural, running precisely against what we are taught is the happy life by our world and often by Christian teachers as well. And so, they require a huge shift in our perspective. This morning, we will be looking at Matthew 5:5 – “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
Meek is not a word you hear used today, except as the first name of the rapper Meek Mill. I can’t tell when I have ever heard someone described as meek, or a time I have ever prayed that God would make me meeker. So what does it mean to be meek? Why does Jesus say that those who are meek will be blessed, favored by God? And what does it mean that the meek will inherit the earth?
