Our Gospel reading is from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11, beginning in verse 25. This is God's Word. At that time, Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Here is the reading of God's Holy Word. Let's pray. Father, as we come to consider Your Word, which says, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth, that we will understand it and we will love Your Word. In Jesus' name, amen. Now the word meek can be translated gentle, blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Kent Hughes in his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount brings to mind the scene where Jesus and Pilate meet each other outside the governor's palace. Jesus is the meekest, gentlest man who ever lived. Pilate is full of pride and insecurities. Jesus appeared to be the epitome of weakness. A man caught on the inexorable tides of Roman history, impotent, frail, destined to be obliterated from the earth. Pilate, the personification of power. History was with him. People like him would inherit the earth. But reality is far different. Jesus, the prisoner, was the free man. He was in absolute control. Jesus, the meek, would inherit not only the earth but the entire universe. Pilate was the prisoner of his own pride. He and the Roman Empire would not have an inheritance and would soon cease to exist. Jesus it seems taught in paradox. He said things like the first will be last. Giving is receiving. Dying is living. Losing is finding. The least is the greatest. The poor are rich. Weakness is strength. And serving is ruling. We the last couple of weeks have been studying the Beatitudes and we've seen the last two weeks Christ is teaching some things that seem contrary to acceptable knowledge. But of course they are. Christianity if it is anything is counter cultural. And especially so in the Beatitudes. They make sense but only if we understand the paradigm by which we see them. I know having been through planting two churches and been in the ministry now in some form or another for 40 years I've heard almost everything there is to know about church planting and church growth. And so much of it is based on what the culture wants. So much of it is based on what people will accept. So much so that denominations here in Canada decided they would try to be like the culture. And that might have worked for a little while but eventually they have shrunk. The kingdom of heaven it seems belongs to the poor in spirit because they can admit their lack of ability their lack of goodness their lack of righteousness and because they can admit it they trust entirely in the righteousness of Christ who is the king of heaven. But the proud who are self sufficient in themselves will never see the kingdom. Now we see that those who are gentle and meek are blessed because they shall inherit the earth. And once again it seems congruous. Is not the meek and the gentle but the tough and determined and the talented and the relentless and even the ruthless who seem to have most of what the world offers. Material possessions power fame position acclaim. These things do not seem to be acquired through meekness through gentleness. At least not as we understand it which of course is part of the problem. When we hear the word meek we often think of weak after all they rhyme and meekness is often used in that sense. You've heard things meek as a mouse but the word implies gentleness someone who is in control not weak but in control. Since as Christians we're called to be imitators of Christ it might be helpful to understand in what sense God is meek or gentle. What? God meek the all powerful God of heaven and earth who created everything by the word of his power. God the eternal who has the same yesterday today and tomorrow the one who has existed always the all knowing God is meek. That doesn't seem right but the scriptures teach the gentleness of God. I'll share with you a couple. First Kings 19 God said go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord and behold the Lord was passing by and a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind and the wind after the wind and earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake after the earthquake of fire but the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing. When Elijah heard it he wrapped his face in the mantle went out and stood in the entrance of the cave and behold a voice came to him and said what are you doing here Elijah? God was in the gentle blowing wind. Psalm 18 says you have given me the shield of your salvation and your right hand upholds me and your gentleness God's gentleness makes me great. You enlarge my steps under me and my feet have not slipped. If gentleness is attributed to God if meekness is attributed to the one who created everything then it is no insult it is no weakness for us to be meek to be gentle. We read in Matthew 11 Jesus said come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble and heart and you will find rest for your souls. Inspired by the Holy Spirit Paul wrote in Galatians 5 so I say live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh for the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature they are in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want but if you are led by the spirit you are not under the law the acts of the sinful nature are obvious sexual immorality impurity and debauchery idolatry witchcraft hatred discord jealousy fits of rage selfish ambition dissensions factions envy drunkenness orgies and the like I warn you as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God as an aside it seems like these are the very people who will inherit the kingdom of God but he goes on in verse 22 it says but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control against such things there is no law those who belong to the Christ have crucified the sinful nature with its passions since we live by the spirit let us keep in step with the spirit I don't think it's a coincidence that gentleness and self-control are paired together the late dr. James Boyce talking about Aristotle said that he postulated that courage was the mean between cowardice and being foolhardy and gentleness is strength under control and a strong horse brought under control by the bit and the bridle we think of gentleness we think of it as inconsistent with the expression of anger and gentleness means and yet gentleness means expressing anger at the right time and for the right reasons we have already seen that Jesus calls himself gentle for I am gentle and lowly in spirit and yet it was Jesus who condemned the Pharisees calling them a brood of vipers that doesn't sound gentle that doesn't sound meek he called them empty tombs full of dead men's bodies and it was Jesus who upon entering the temple and seeing that they were buying and selling overturned the tables and he said his father's house would be a house of prayer not a den of robbers so when it came to defending people against the falls teaching the Pharisees Jesus displayed his anger and yet he's gentle he's meek when it came to defending the honor and glory of his heavenly father Jesus was willing to be angry to the point of knocking over tables now if you saw somebody today out of anger at God being slighted came and knocked over tables we will call him anything but meek anything but gentle except that Jesus is gentle by his own words he's gentle but when he was arrested when he was falsely accused he remained silent he said though he could call down 144,000 angels in an instant to defend him he did not perhaps you remember the account of John 18 when Jesus was arrested Judas brought a Roman cohort with him now a cohort is estimated to be anywhere from 300 to 600 men that's a lot of people to come and arrest one person and they came with a Roman cohort and the Pharisees had lanterns and torches and weapons Jesus knowing everything that was about to take place he said whom do you seek they said Jesus the Nazarene and he said to them now the Bible says I am he the English translation says I am he but what he really said in the original language was I am I am is the name of God and so when he said I am they drew back and fell to the ground therefore he asked them again whom do you seek and they said Jesus the Nazarene Jesus answered I told you that I am he so if you seek me let these others go their way so you see Jesus had the ability to call down 144,000 angels and when he spoke his name everybody who came to arrest him fell down because of the power in his name and yet he's gentle and he's meek and he allowed himself to be arrested why would he do that because he had to sacrifice his own life in order to save us when he was scourged he didn't become angry when he was nailed to the cross he didn't become angry he said father forgive them for they don't know what they're doing and we are made great by his gentleness by his gentleness so a gentle person will be angry for the right reasons but not for the wrong reasons you see and that's why Aristotle's definition falls short because it's impossible for any of us to do this in our own strength the horse submits to the will of the rider the man submits to his own will but the Christian submits himself to the will of the father therefore his gentleness is from the Holy Spirit just as Jesus submitted himself to the heavenly father and being filled with the spirit was meek and gentle Paul taught in his letters under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit about this very thing in Philippians 2 he said Jesus was found in appearance as a man he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death and for this reason God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow and those who are heaven and on earth and under the earth and that every tongue will confess Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God the father now we see that Christ is our example and we're called to be gentle just as he is in Galatians 6 1 says if anyone's caught in a trespass you who are spiritual restore to one in a spirit of gentleness Ephesians 4 I apprision of the Lord implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling which you've been called with all humility and gentleness let your gentle spirit be known to all the Lord is near so as those who've been chosen by God beloved put on a heart of compassion kindness humility gentleness and patience who among you is wise and understanding let him show by his good behavior deeds in the gentleness of wisdom but let it be the hidden person of the heart with imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit so we see that God the Father is gentle that the Holy Spirit one of the part of the gift of the Holy Spirit is that we would be gentle that Jesus himself the Son of God who had the power to bring 144 000 angels to bear to defend him and did not but was willing to overturn tables in the temple and call out the Pharisees for their false teaching he was gentle so how are we to be gentle how do we get it what is the key why is it that we're not gentle and one needs to change for us to be gentle I believe it's an issue of who's it's an issue of whose righteousness we depend on self-righteous people tend to be defensive easily offended because they're depending on their own righteousness and strength for their justification now now Jack Miller the late Jack Miller who was a church planning pastor in Philadelphia had a saying he would say cheer up you're worse than you think I remember thinking how profound that was because when people accuse you of something no matter what it is almost no matter what it is you can in your own heart and mind think yeah even if that's not true there's a lot of things that are much worse than that that are true and you just don't know it remember I mentioned last week that Jonathan Edwards said that the only contribution to your own salvation is the sin that made it necessary so depending on your own righteousness and your own strength for your justification is a fool's game we see this in politics all the time especially as elections draw near each side declares their righteousness or at least their rightness or at least their rightness or at least more right than the candidates in the other parties and in their own minds they're able to justify themselves in their positions because of the rightness of their rightness and the other's wrongness so what's the answer Jesus gives us a different righteousness Romans 3 says now a righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law although the law and the prophets bear witness to us so what Paul is saying is those who can keep the law perfectly would be righteous but nobody can so what are we to do so what are we to do well there's a righteousness that's apart from the law verse 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus for all who believe for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and we are justified by his gracious gift to the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith this is the righteousness that's apart from the law this is the righteousness which is given to us this is the righteousness of Christ fulfilling the law perfectly and completely by never sinning by doing everything that a human being was supposed to do perfectly lovingly gently and yet being condemned for our sin propitiation means that his sacrifice on the cross satisfied the justice of God the wrath of God that was poured out on him instead of us when we come to the table in a few minutes that's what we should be thinking about the sacrifice that Christ made who is gentle and lowly in spirit and relying completely on his righteousness that's what we've been given and if we rest in that it frees us from the need to defend ourselves to assert our own righteousness because before the living God I'm declared righteous because of the righteousness of Christ which has been given to me when Jesus was attacked he rested in his father's will he knew he was righteous but when the father or the or the bride the church were under attack he was moved to action when I'm attacked I don't need to defend myself or assert my own righteousness instead I can rest in the righteousness which has been given to me by Christ Jesus I remember 2 Corinthians 5 21 says he made him Jesus who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him let's pray Lord as we prepare our hearts to come to the table we ask that you would help us see the truth that your righteousness has been given to us in Christ Jesus who is gentle and humble so we can trust you and take his yoke upon us in his name we pray Amen