Sermons
Can Man Live Without Mercy?
Genesis 3:3-7
One of Christ's great
commands is for Christians to extend mercy. And the fact that mercy is called for indicates people are
imperfect. We struggle, err, tire; we get
sick, lonely, and needy. These are the
constraints of being human.
There are times we look
within ourselves and discover we don't have the strength, or fortitude or
whatever it takes to survive without help from another. We need outside assistance for our
weaknesses. And that's why Jesus said: "Be
merciful, just as your Father is merciful" (Luke
Christ called us to live
with more than an awareness of others' needs. He called us to intervene. And
that's what mercy is. It's compassion in
action. It's love without a leash. And yet extending mercy is what's so
difficult to do!
(Illustration) Some years back a photographer that worked
for a Christian journal was assigned an overseas project. He was commissioned to photograph someone that
characterized the wretched condition of humanity; a real life picture that
would demonstrate man's need for mercy. It took a while but after searching the photographer captured his
picture. It was a hungry beggar, lying
on the curbside, with his hand stretched toward a storefront displaying bread. The editor agreed that it perfectly depicted
humanity's need for mercy. After
congratulating the photographer the editor asked: "And what assistance did you
give the beggar after the photograph?" The photographer confessed he did nothing. The editor then responded: "You got the
picture but you didn't get the message."
But there's more to
mercy than simply supplying answers to needs. We may see a stray animal and in a cavalier manner throw it a leftover
scrap from dinner. That's not God's
mercy. God doesn't supply our needs in a
high-minded manner.
When you read of God's
mercy in Scripture it's linked with sympathy, emotion, and love. God's mercy issues from the depths of His
soul. Paul said in Ephesians 2:4 that "God is rich
in mercy." Imagine that! He's rich in wanting to enter our lives
and release us from sin, sickness, and disappointment and offer His marvelous
supply!
We find it difficult to
deal with others tenderly, in part, due to the constant bombardment of tragedy,
violence, and misery that assaults us through television.
We've
repeatedly watched those planes slam into the
Real
life TV shows us wild police chases, car crashes, and crooks menacing innocent
civilians.
Even
the Weather Channel shows killer storms that create chaos.
Because these images are
unpleasant we try to tame our emotions by developing a thick skin. But the danger is, instead of developing a
thick skin we're inclined to develop a hard heart and a hard heart invites
indifference.
That's precisely what
Jesus—the Man of Mercy—opposes. Ephesians
A Call to Compassion
Do you know what I hear
Paul requesting here? When He says: "Be
kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ
forgave you" I hear him saying: "Act like God. God is kind, gentle, forgiving, and
merciful. Act like God."
When you study
Scripture, you see God extended mercy when we weren't worthy of mercy. The incredible aspect of our relationship
with God is "while we were yet sinners Christ died for us!" He died for us, not after we repented and got
right, but "while we were yet sinners,"
and deserved nothing!
That's why God requires
mercy from us. He wants us to take the
same grace we received and share it with others (just like us) that don't
deserve it!
I know that's sometimes
difficult but let me remind you of its reward, because there's a payoff for extending
mercy. As flawed mortal men, always in
need, those showing mercy are guaranteed that God will reciprocate His
mercy! You give mercy, you get mercy!
That's
why Jesus promised: "blessed are the
merciful, they will obtain mercy." It's God's guarantee!
I
like Psalm 41:1 that says: "Blessed is he
who has regard for the weak; the LORD delivers him in times of trouble. (2) The LORD will protect him and preserve
his life; he will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of
his foes. (3) The LORD will sustain him
on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness."
What a promise! When we help the needy we lay up Heavenly
stock. God promises to protect and
preserve our life and deny Satan from ruining us. That's why we should apportion as much as
possible!
(Transition) I want us to consider Christ's Parable of the
Unmerciful Servant as we look at our need to give and receive mercy.
The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
This
Parable describes a servant owing his master 10,000 talents. A talent is a measurement of weight, that,
when converted into its
The
man owing this sort of debt doesn't have many options. All he can do is plead for mercy and hope his
creditor doesn't imprison him. And
that's what happened. In sheer mercy the
creditor wiped the slate clean, dropped the charges, and freed the man.
But
that same debtor, forgiven of $3,000,600,000,000, was also owed money. Someone owed him approximately $20.00. And when the poor guy didn't have ready cash
this creditor seized him by the throat and demanded payment. But it was no use, he couldn't pay. And he was thrown into prison.
When
the original creditor discovered what happened he was angered at the ungrateful
servant threw him into prison until all he owed was paid. Jesus closed the
parable by warning: "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you
unless you forgive your brother from your heart" (Matthew
Listen, it's dangerous to ignore God's call to extend
mercy. We jeopardize our covenant
relationship with Him when we ignore it. This is what Zechariah prophesied to
Zechariah
7:9 says: "This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice;
show mercy and compassion to one another. (10) Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the
poor. In your hearts do not think evil
of each other.' (11) "But they refused
to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their
ears. (12) They made their hearts as
hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD
Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry. (13) "When I called, they did not listen; so
when they called, I would not listen,' says the LORD Almighty. (14) ‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among
all the nations, where they were strangers. The land was left so desolate behind them that no one could come or
go. This is how they made the pleasant
land desolate.""
And
listen to Christ's words to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:23: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a
tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice,
mercy and faithfulness. You should have
practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. (24) You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel."
The
people Jesus most severely rebuked were those that left no provision room for extending
mercy. And people like this are the most
miserable people in the world!
(Illustration) Several years ago Constance Mitchell's son
was murdered, along with five others, when a man went on a shooting
rampage. The murderer was convicted and
faced the death penalty. But that's when
Mrs. Mitchell stood before the court with an unusual plea. She requested that her son's murderer not
face the death penalty. That took
courage because Mrs. Mitchell was black and her son's killer was white. Later, when questioned why she would plea for
mercy, she gave the following statement. "I did it for my sake. [I knew it
was] . . . the only way you can be healed."
There
will always be offenses in life. We're
going to get insulted, betrayed, and wounded. Jesus said: "It's inevitable that offenses will come." But that's when we have to reach for mercy,
discharge the offense, and free ourselves. And when we do that we discover mercy has a double blessing. It not only blesses God, it blesses the one
issuing the mercy!
Hear
me Saints of God. Love, forgiveness, and mercy remove the pain from a bad experience! It's the path to freedom, peace, and joy in
Christ.
You
say: "I'm justified in my feelings." Feelings of what? Animosity? Bitterness? Resentment? Anger?" Do you really want to harbor these
things? People without mercy live in a
vicious cycle of retaliation, hatred, judgment, and prejudice—things that
pollute and destroy the soul!
God
wants us to understand something: He
will deal with our enemies; it's our duty to love them. Romans
(Illustration) Scientists have theorized that if an object
the size of a B-B were heated to a temperature equivalent to the sun and placed
on earth it would kill every man within 1000 miles. Now do you think Jesus could walk up to that
sun-hot B-B and swallow it without suffering harm? Of course! If you could trust Him to swallow a B-B filled with such intense heat
you can trust Him to quench the fire of your flesh and deal with your enemies.
Mercy
doesn't mean we condone deviate behavior in others, but it does mean we won't
seek revenge toward people that slander us or hurt us or whose actions oppose
everything Scripture says is decent.
(Transition) Let's look at that familiar Parable Jesus
told of the Good Samaritan.
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
This parable is perhaps
the Bible's most familiar Parable. It
reveals three distinct personas. There's
the character of the thieves, the character of the Priest and Levite, and the
character of the Samaritan.
A. When the thieves came along they found a
stranger, "stripped him of his clothes,
beat him and went away, leaving him half dead." These men were brute beasts without any
sympathy for human life. To them people
were simply objects of exploitation and gain. They were takers of mercy.
B. And with the man lying half dead along
came a Priest and then a Levite. As
apathy would have it, both men intentionally averted this mortally wounded
traveler. Jesus said, "[They] passed by on the other side."
When you hear Jesus
describe their actions you know exactly His charge against them: They were filled with cold-hearted indifference
and completely apathetic toward this man's misery! They weren't takers of mercy they were talkers of mercy.
Oh, they were familiar
with the word eleos. They could parse it and preach it but they
couldn't practice it. And they were as
sinful as the thieves! They weren't as
brutal but equally as guilty. One group
abused while the other ignored.
If we're going to adorn
the name, "Christian" we need to do more than sing and testify. We have to have to roll up our sleeves and
enter the arena of agony.
How often have we
scrambled to avoid a drunk, a beggar, or somebody that just didn't measure up
to our standard? And these are the very
ones Jesus told us not to avoid! As a
matter of fact, He told us to pursue them.
When
Jesus authenticated His ministry to John He said in Luke
Jesus
said in Luke 14:13, "when you give a
banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, (14) and you will
be blessed. Although they cannot repay
you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
I thank God for the
community of believers. My closest
friends are those within the house of the redeemed. We're called especially to minister to those
sitting in these pews. But Christ has
also commissioned us to minister to those that don't look right, smell right,
or act right!
When Jesus gathers the
sea of humanity before His Judgment Seat one indictment that will be leveled
against unbelievers will be indifference! The Bible says Jesus will say to those
standing at His left: "I was hungry and
you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I
was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not
clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me" (Matthew
25:42-43).
C. God wants us to translate our compassion into action! And that's what the Samaritan did. He went the extra mile. He bandaged the beaten traveler's wounds,
poured in the medicine, and transported him to a recovery room.
And it didn't stop
there. He not only paid the innkeeper to
care for the traveler he offered to reimburse whatever additional expenses
would be incurred for his rehabilitation. You see, real Christianity translates compassion into action. The Good Samaritan wasn't a taker of mercy, or a talker of mercy, he was a giver of mercy.
(Transition) There's another reason God asks us to extend
mercy. It's a marvelous tool that helps
us win lost souls to Christ.
Sharing
God's Mercy Helps Convert Sinners
(Illustration) How many here have noticed the logo plastered
on some cars of a fish that's grown feet and Darwin written in across it? It's an obvious backlash to the fish Christians place on their
cars. Several years ago in
I admit, as a
Bible-believing creationist, my emotions are stirred when I stare at a fish
growing legs while I'm stopped in traffic. But we don't have to get hostile about it! We won't change one person by shaking a fist,
cursing the darkness, or being intolerant. It only drives sinners further from the truth. We will convert sinners when we can
compassionately "speak the truth in love."
Contrary
to my wish our American culture grows more depraved every day.
We're told to accept same sex
marriages.
We're told: "It's narrow-minded
to assume Jesus is the only way. It's
many paths that lead to God."
We're told that life is
designed primarily for pleasure and it's OK to do whatever we want as long as
nobody else is hurt.
I
don't believe Christians should ignore or condone the world's values. But we won't change anybody by demonizing
them or by merely crafting a more skilled argument than they can. Mercy doesn't mean we lack convictions, it
means we're willing to approach people where they are and help them find the
truth regardless of their lifestyle or how they think.
That's
the essence of what mercy does. It
reaches out to people that are bound by sin and offers Christ's transforming
power in a non-condemning manner.
That's
what God did for us. Titus 3:5 says: "He
saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but
according to His mercy." Mercy . . .
undeserved favor rescued us!
I love the way the
Apostle Paul illustrated this in Colossians 2:13: "When you were dead in
your sins . . . God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, (14) having canceled the written code, with
its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it
away, nailing it to the cross."
Here's the graphic
picture Paul paints. When he says our
sins were nailed to the cross he refers to a first century custom that created
a list of charges for someone accused of a crime. But when a nail was driven through that list
it cancelled the charges and cleared the offender. No accusation could be leveled against that
person.
When Jesus went to Calvary
He bore the charges of sin against us, all that we couldn't repay, and made
full payment of them to His Heavenly Father. And the nails piercing His hands and feet declared that no charges could
stand against us. We were completely
acquitted of the written code condemning us.
And God's mercy toward
us doesn't end at the moment we accept Christ as our Savior. His mercy, that unmerited favor, continues to
sustain us each day of our lives. Lamentations
The Psalmist knew that and
that's why he said: "Do not withhold your mercy from me, O Lord may your
love and your truth always protect me" (Psalm 40:11).
"If you, O Lord, kept a record
of sins, Lord who could stand? But with
you there is forgiveness." (Psalm 130:3).
The Adulterous Woman
One of the most stirring examples of
Christ's compassion is in John 8 when the Pharisees laid a trap for Jesus by
bringing a woman caught in adultery before Him. Besides the crucifixion this is perhaps the most sinister plot the
religionists contrived against Christ. The Pharisees had publicly exposed her transgression, convicted this
woman, and prepared to stone her.
What's
so devious about this scenario is they honestly thought they had Jesus trapped
in a no-win situation. Moses' Law called
for stoning her . . . but, if Jesus corroborated with the Law they could charge
Him with hypocrisy, because here was the Man nicknamed, "The Friend of
sinners" willing to kill her. But if
He acquitted her they could accuse Him of opposing Moses' Law and being soft on
sin.
But
Jesus knew this was an ambush. And what
a reply He fired at these cold-hearted Pharisees! Jesus said: "whoever is without sin can throw a stone" (8:7). And His answer disarmed everybody. In one phrase Jesus unloaded their hands but
without condoning the woman's wrong. But
let me show you where the real act of compassion is here.
When the Pharisees brought this woman
public where did they put her? They
stood her right beside Jesus. When Jesus
bent down and wrote on the ground as they plied Him for an answer where was the
woman? She stood right beside
Jesus. When Jesus invited the crowd to
stone the woman where was she standing? Correct,
right beside Jesus!
Do you think every rock hurled from that
mob would have struck only that woman? No! These were Christ's enemies
not hers! This entire episode was
devised against Him. But Jesus fully
identified with this woman, even to the point of being stoned with her!
Do you understand that
when you suffer today the Man of Compassion fully identifies with you? He's willing to enter your pain and failure
and disappointments just as He did for this woman in Luke 8. Jesus cares!
Evangelistic Conclusion
Do you
know what lies ahead for every person on this planet? Every human is unavoidably headed toward an
appointment with judgment. At that Day
of Judgment one of two destinies will be pronounced upon each individual
standing their Creator Judge—eternal life with Jesus Christ or the sentence of
Hell's wrath. That's why James
When
God settles the accounts of men mercy will be our best ally against
judgment. We will have needed Christ's
mercy to receive forgiveness our sins and we will have needed it to extend Christ's
compassion to others in need. Mercy will
save us in that dreadful Day of Judgment.
Are
you merciful even as you Heavenly Father is merciful?
Copyright © 2009 by Pulpit Today
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