Daily Devotional For Monday, August 26, 2024

The weekend is over and what a weekend it was. Southside celebrated its 130th anniversary and my 25th anniversary as its senior pastor. Praise the Lord and let’s pray Southside is here to celebrate its 260th anniversary. We have been making our way through the greatest and most famous sermon ever preached – Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount. Currently we are in The Beatitudes with Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:7, ““Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (NASB). 

In Matthew 5:7, let’s talk about some ways we who constantly and consistently receive God’s mercy can share mercy to others:

1. First, we can share mercy through our physical actions. Jesus gave us a great story in the Gospels that demonstrates this. It is the Story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. Take your Bible and read it in the reference given: Luke 10:25-37.

If you know this story, you know that Jews and Samaritans hated one another. Jews considered Samaritans unclean and they would avoid going there so that they would not be considered ceremonially unclean. Samaritans were Jews in the Northern Kingdom of Israel who had intermarried with Assyrians when they were conquered as a nation by Assyria in 722 BC. God had given commands to His people not to intermarry with non-Jews so that the covenant He had established with Abraham would remain pure. 

In the story a Samaritan is traveling and comes across a Jew who has been attacked by bandits and left to die naked on the road. A Jewish priest came upon him and crossed to the other side and did not show any mercy on a fellow Jew. Then later a Jewish Temple assistant came along and saw this Jewish man and saw this Jewish man. He actually walked up to him and saw the man out of curiosity, but he also did not show any mercy to a fellow Jew. But of all people to come much later and show mercy to this Jewish man, it was his enemy – a despised Samaritan. So two Jewish religious leaders broke God’s law in Deuteronomy 15:7-8,  “If there is a poor man among you, one of your fellow Israelites, in any of your cities in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not be heartless, nor close-fisted with your poor brother; (8) but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend to him whatever he needs” (NASB). So, we can show mercy to people physically to help them with their needs.

2. Not only can mercy be shown through our actions, it can be shown through our attitudes. How can we do this? Just like the Good Samaritan did. He held no grudge or resentment or bitterness against this beaten up, left to die, naked Jewish man because he was Jewish. We can do this through attitudes that refuse to take advantage of someone’s failures, weaknesses, or publicize someone’s sins or failures. 

Augustine (354-430 AD) who fed hundreds of hungry people at his table wrote these words: “Whoever thinks that he is able to nibble at the life of absent friends must know that he’s unworthy of this table.” (Source: https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/profiles-in-faith-augustine/). Pastor and author, John MacArthur  writes this in his commentary: “The vindictive, heartless, indifferent are not subjects of Christ’s kingdom. When they pass by on the other side, as the priest and the Levite did in the story of the good Samaritan, they show they have passed Christ by” (Source: John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 195).

3. We can show our mercy spiritually. To quote Augustine again, he said this: “If I weep for the body from which the soul is departed, should I not weep for the soul from which God is departed?” The sensitive Christian will grieve more for lost souls than for lost bodies. Because we have experienced God’s mercy, we are to have great concern for those who have not.  Source: https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/2202/happy-are-the-merciful. 

• To me one of the best examples of this is how Jesus showed mercy from the cross when He said this in Luke 23:34,  “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (AMP). 
• To one of the thieves who cried out to Jesus to save him, Jesus showed this man mercy in saying this to him in Luke 23:43, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (AMP). 
• From the cross Jesus showed mercy to His mother in John 19:27-28, “When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He *said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” (27) Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household” (NASB).
• And when Stephen was being murdered and martyred for his faith, Acts 7:60 says he prayed out loud this, “He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died” (NLT).

4. John MacArthur says this is another way we can show mercy to others – through confrontation. 

“Paul says that, as Christ’s servants, we should gently correct “those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 2:25). We are to be willing to confront others about their sin in order that they might come to God for salvation. When certain teachers were “upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach, for the sake of sordid gain,” Paul told Titus to “reprove them severely that they may be sound in the faith” (Titus 1:11, 13). Love and mercy will be severe when that is necessary for the sake of an erring brother and for the sake of Christ’s church. In such cases it is cruel to say nothing and let the harm continue.

As Jude closed his letter with the encouragement to “keep yourselves in the love of God waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life,” he also admonished, “And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh” (Jude 21–23). Extreme situations require extreme care, but we are to show mercy even to those trapped in the worst systems of apostasy” (Source: John MacArtur, John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 196).”

5. We can show mercy by praying for others, especially those who hurt us, harm us and say all kinds of evil about us. We are like Jesus Christ when we do this. We can show mercy in our prayers by praying for those who are lost and going to hell. Most Christians live as if hell isn’t real and their lost friends and family members are not going there. Hell is real and all lost people go there. 

6. We can show mercy to the lost by simply sharing the Gospel with and to them. Or, we can think, “I don’t care if you go to hell.” Which do you think our Lord prefers?

“Paul says that, as Christ’s servants, we should gently correct “those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 2:25). We are to be willing to confront others about their sin in order that they might come to God for salvation. When certain teachers were “upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach, for the sake of sordid gain,” Paul told Titus to “reprove them severely that they may be sound in the faith” (Titus 1:11, 13). Love and mercy will be severe when that is necessary for the sake of an erring brother and for the sake of Christ’s church. In such cases it is cruel to say nothing and let the harm continue.

As Jude closed his letter with the encouragement to “keep yourselves in the love of God waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life,” he also admonished, “And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh” (Jude 21–23). Extreme situations require extreme care, but we are to show mercy even to those trapped in the worst systems of apostasy” (Source: John MacArtur, John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 196).”

7. We can show mercy by praying for others, especially those who hurt us, harm us and say all kinds of evil about us. We are like Jesus Christ when we do this. We can show mercy in our prayers by praying for those who are lost and going to hell. Most Christians live as if hell isn’t real and their lost friends and family members are not going there. Hell is real and all lost people go there. 

8. We can show mercy to the lost by simply sharing the Gospel with and to them. Or, we can think, “I don’t care if you go to hell.” Which do you think our Lord prefers?

Jesus says the result of showing or giving mercy is that we receive it. Jesus’ use of the Greek language makes it clear that only those who are merciful will receive mercy from God.  In no way is Jesus saying or suggesting that in showing mercy to others does that get us salvation. The Bible is very clear in Ephesians 2:8-9 why this is not true: “For it is by grace [God’s remarkable compassion and favor drawing you to Christ] that you have been saved [actually delivered from judgment and given eternal life] through faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [not through your own effort], but it is the [undeserved, gracious] gift of God; (9) not as a result of [your] works [nor your attempts to keep the Law], so that no one will [be able to] boast or take credit in any way [for his salvation]” (AMP). We can only be saved by God’s grace and mercy to us. There is not one thing we can do to be saved on our own. 

James reaffirms the limitations of mercy when he writes this in James 2:13, “There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you” (NLT). Jesus made this point later in His sermon on Matthew 6:14-15, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. (15) But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. Jesus’ point is that God does not give us mercy as merit – for being good because none of us are good (Rom. 3:10-12). 

We cannot be merciful as God intends until He has bestowed on us His mercy through salvation. God does not give us mercy for being good. He gives us mercy to us in grace, not because it is earned, but because it is needed. God loves to give us what we need, not what we deserve. We are most like God when we do that to others.

Jesus taught a parable on this called the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:21-35. When we hold back mercy to others, especially those who have sinned against us, God withholds His mercy to us. If you are genuinely redeemed, saved, God has forgiven you a debt you could never repay and He warns us what He will do to us in Matthew 18:35 if we do not give mercy to others who “owe” us according to our cultural standards. 

Questions To Consider

1. New Testament scholar Bruce Barton in his commentary writes the opposite of this Beatitude: “Wretched are the merciless, for no mercy will be shown to them” (Source: Bruce B. Barton, The Life Application Bible Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 76). Wretched is a very strong word. What impact does it have on you being merciful to others, especially those who have hurt or harmed you, as Jesus was?
2. To those who have hurt or harmed you, do you show mercy to them as Jesus taught us to do in Matthew 5:43-47? Why or why not? If you do not, is it possible that God is withholding mercy to you in certain areas of your life?
3. Do you show mercy by praying for the lost? Why or why not?
4. The parable of The Good Samaritan is a powerful story of showing mercy. Of all people to do it, a despised Samaritan did. With who are you more like the Samaritan showing mercy and with who are you the opposite and why? What does this tell you about God giving you mercy?
5. In point #3, you were given several examples of people showing mercy in their actions and attitudes. Which of these impact and influence you the most to mimic them and why?

Scripture To Meditate On: 1 Peter 2:10, “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy” (NLT).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, for several days You have been teaching me and convicting me about being merciful, especially to those who hurt and harm me. I need to be more like You – pray for them, bless them and do good to them. I do not deserve Your mercy, but You freely give it to me through Your grace. You say, “To whom much is given, much is required” (Luke 12:48). I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly