Video transcript below
All right, this is Video Number Four, which is Jesus teaching us, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth,” Matthew 5:5. We’ve talked about in the first beatitude, being poor in spirit, and the second one, mourning over sin. And remember these two things are foundational. We cannot, if we understand, that we cannot draw a breath without Jesus Christ giving us life. If we understand the great tragedy of sin that’s caused every tragic thing that’s ever happened in the whole world, including in our own lives then, and we have a strong aversion, we develop a strong aversion for all sin, including our white lies and the kinds of things we give our pass on ourselves, a pass on as we do that. Because it’s a process. As we develop that dependence upon God, as we develop a strong aversion for living in sin, we are drawn more and more into the presence of God. And it is in the presence of God where we experience these blessings that Jesus is talking about. The blessings of having life and having it more abundantly. Okay, so that sets us up for this beatitude, which is meekness.
First, let’s just dispel any notion that Jesus is encouraging us to live a life as a spineless coward. He’s not encouraging us to be a doormat. He didn’t live that way. First century Christians didn’t live that way. If you read the history of the churches, the people in the first, second,and third centuries were horribly persecuted, throughout history as well, and even now in different countries. So that’s not what Jesus is talking about. Jesus is wanting us in this beatitude to understand what it is going to take, actually in all the beatitudes to weather the storms of life. We are warriors. If we belong to him, the battle lines are drawn. And so, some of the things we talk about in these single beatitudes apply across the line.
For example, Jesus said in Matthew 12:30, he said, He who is not with me is against me. That’s pretty strong. And we can’t be embracing sin and claiming to be the children of Christ, right? Going back, this is Jesus’ manifesto. This is his proclamation of what his people look like when they belong to him. He also told us, behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, therefore, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. A dove is gentle. A serpent knows when to strike. We must strike the balance between the two when dealing with our fellow man. So this blessed are the meek Jesus is talking about— the first beatitudes are our relationship with him. Now he’s kind of developing, okay, let’s reach out. This is, these are horizontal relationships.
How do we deal and interact with other people?
What is our attitude supposed to be in reflecting that we belong to his kingdom?
And so, you know, one of the things we talk about a lot in our devotionals and videos is we have to present the truth in love. He’s encouraging us to find the right balance of strength, wisdom and love. And so, this happens more naturally when we are already poor in spirit and dependent on him. And if we have the right view of sin, our relationship with God’s spirit will be healthy. And then he will give us the knowledge and the wisdom and the insight to develop the balance between truth and love.
You have to understand, this is something I never really understood, that in order to be meek, you must have God’s presence to develop, otherwise, you just become a doormat. Jesus Christ, the creator of everything, the sustainer of everything is not a doormat, okay? He is strength under control. And, so that kind of leads us to the what meekness is.
What is meekness? Well, the ancient Greek word for meek is praus. I’m not saying it right, but there’s not really a great English word to translate adequately. But it conveys the idea of one who is powerful, yet has allowed humility to control that power, that immense power, its strength under control is one way to put it.
And there was another quote that David Guzik used in his commentary. He said, men who suffer wrong without bitterness or desire for revenge, that’s another example. Someone who can restrain their anger, righteous anger in obedience to the will of God. And so, these are different examples, but I have an example. And this comes from my days of clerking.
Back in law school, I clerked for a man who was a Vietnam veteran. He had been a pilot in the Navy, and during a landing on one of the aircraft carriers, the tail hook on his plane broke and he and his copilot crashed into the ocean. His copilot died and he was paralyzed from the waist down, but he loved horses. And he had an Arabian stallion named Rabi Delrey. So while I was clerking for him, he found out I was a bit of a horse freak, and he asked me if I would mind exercising his Arabian stallion that was probably worth more than my life was as a poor law student. So I was excited. I was like, yes, I’ll do this.
So I went out to his farm and saddled up Rabi, and it was the most amazing ride I’ve ever been on. This horse had so much spirit and so much energy. Every time I rode him, I could feel his energy coming through my body. And it was exhilarating. It was unbelievable. And so it taught me something. I learned how powerful this little bitty bit that was in his mouth was. I could use that bit to control this massive energy and this massive animal that could have trampled me and bucked me off. And basically make my life very miserable. But that little bit in his mouth, and through training, he had become obedient to the will of his master, and therefore he could go outside of the fence. He could go explore places he would never be allowed to explore if he were not under control of a master who could keep him in check and kept him on the paths he was supposed to go on and kept him away from the mares. And then furthermore, if he ever was raced, he would’ve never been allowed on a track without learning to be meek, which is great strength under control. I hope that makes sense. That’s a personal example that kind of has taught me, okay, that power that that horse had was only useful, was only enjoyed by him because he had a master on his back who could guide him in a way that was wise.
And we, as born again Christians, okay? We are, first of all, we’re in a race. We’re in a race against the enemies of God for lost souls. People are dying and going to hell every day. And we have an important mission. We are, like I’ve said before, we’re warriors. And if we are not under the control of the Spirit of God, then what are we doing with our life? If we’re just lulling around in the pasture, not able to get out because we can’t be trusted, what are we doing? What is our purpose in life? And we are not accomplishing, we’re not even on the track because we can’t be trusted outside the fence. You know what I’m saying? Think about this too. You know, that stallion had a lot of power, right? But we as born again, Christians have the power of the resurrection inside of us. The same power that raised Jesus up from the dead is inside of us. Wow. If you’re born again, you have the power that created the world inside of you.
The Apostle Paul said in Ephesians Chapter One, he said, that he prayed that the eyes of your understanding, this is a prayer for Christians being enlightened, that you may know what is the exceeding greatness of the power, his power towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. You see, that’s the power that a born again believer has inside of each of us.
Do we understand that? Do we get that?
Are we tapping into that or are we so out of control, you know, led around by our emotions and our feelings and oh, this person hurt me and we stay, you know, stuck with our head in the pond for days. I use a horse example. Are we stuck in the barn? We don’t have to live that way. We don’t have to live stuck. We can let God take the reins and take control and take us out on the track and get in the race. We have a glorious purpose. But in order to live that glorious purpose, we have to be broken. That horse had to be broken. His spirit wasn’t broken, but his body was brought under control. This body is our enemy. If we don’t get it under control, and even if we do it under control, it’s always going to fight against us. But if we want to experience the blessedness of being meek, then we need to let God break us down and make us usable. Like that stallion was broken by a trainer, a good trainer, and he was made usable. He got to run his race. Meekness allows us to experience the outer limits of God’s power in our life. Think about that for a minute. Meekness, in other words, allowing God to break us and bring us under control, allows us to experience the outer limits of that power that raised Jesus from the dead. We get to experience that. We can live.
We talk about, oh, that person violated my rights. Well, I mean, isn’t it more important to be right with God than it is to exercise whatever rights you think you have strutting around the pasture, rolling in the mud? I mean, come on y’all. We have so much more to live for. We have a glorious purpose. A meek person has God in control of their life and has the inner strength to view criticism, hate, rejection, all manner of evil and things that are offensive to us. And through the lens of our glorious purpose, we’re not weak, we’re meek. And that meekness allows us to run a glorious race against the opposition. And this power isn’t diminished by humility, compassion, gentleness, patience, and in fact, it’s magnified. This is a manifestation. When we are meek, we can manifest the fruits of the spirit. And, those were in Galatians Chapter Five, joy, peace, love, long suffering. Right?
To be both powerful and gentle is to be like Jesus Christ, the creator, the sustainer of all things who made himself nothing to give us everything he creates. He sustains this earth. He will take care of us. He already paid the ultimate price for us. And those who are meek live in the confidence of the one who inherits the entire world. You see how that works? Because everything that we learned to view, everything, bad circumstances, mistreatment, through the lens of scripture and the inspiration of the Spirit. We know God’s in control. We know that our purpose is to glorify God. And this purpose can never be thwarted. We know we are an heir of God. We’re a joint heir of Jesus Christ.
And so when we view our life, it’s like, yeah, I inherit this whole world because I have Jesus Christ and he is the creator and sustainer, and I’m on his team. He’s running my race. He’s in charge. And you know, wow. You see how the meek can inherit the whole earth because you know who you belong to. You know, I know who my master is. I know who’s got the reins. I know who’s guiding me in my race is Jesus Christ. And I know that the power that’s in me is greater than he who is against me. So you can spit on me. You can say what you wanna say. But that doesn’t thwart my purpose, because my master, he is the one who even made you, who has made the person who’s being ugly. And meekness allows us, when we discipline ourselves, and we allow ourselves to be broken and trained to be meek, we do inherit the earth.
Isn’t that exciting? So the beatitude of meekness allows us to open up a whole new power center. We’re tapping into the power of Jesus Christ. As we do, we run the race as if we own the track. So, tomorrow we’re going to go on to the next beatitude, or I guess I should say not tomorrow, but the next video. Hope you enjoyed it.
