The Happiness Series: Part II
The Happiness Series: Part II
by Pastor Kent Munsey
February 28, 2021
“Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”
- Matthew 5:4 (NKJV)
In this series, we are studying the Beatitudes, which lay the groundwork for us to receive Jesus, his ministry, and the message of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus was introducing and inaugurating the kingdom of heaven here on earth by sharing the qualities of a kingdom citizen. The Beatitudes can appear contradictory at times, and this one is especially so: “blessed” means happy, so it would appear that Jesus is saying those who mourn are happy.
There are nine words for mourning in Greek in scripture; this specific use of mourn would mean the mourning of sin. God’s heart is broken when we sin. What God reveals he wants to heal. God promises comfort, restoration, and repentance that leads to joy.
Godly sorrow produces repentance. Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation (2 Cor 7:9-11). Repentance does not mean being sorry; it means a change of mind, heart, and direction. We can’t change when we don’t engage in godly sorrow. When we are not happy or blessed, it may be because we have not mourned over our sin. The amount of joy we experience will be proportionate to the degree of sorrow we have experienced over our sin. The joy of our salvation is when we mourn our sin as if someone else had died.
In Luke 4:18, Jesus reads from Isaiah 61:1-3. Part of Jesus’ ministry is to comfort those who mourn. The word used for mourn in Luke and Isaiah is the same as the word used for mourn in the Beatitudes. We must mourn our sin. The mark of God is on those who mourn sin, not just their sin but the sin of other people (Ezekiel 9:3-4). We will never know how great God’s grace is until we understand how bad our sin is.Repentance produces joy. Psalms 32:1-4 says happy is the one whose sins are forgiven. The word comforted in Matthew 5 is related to the word for the Holy Spirit, paracletos, which means the one who comes alongside. Isaiah 40:1-2 says that God would give Israel double for all of their sins, meaning that he would pay their debts. We can experience true and lasting joy because our sins have been covered. We have freedom and forgiveness from our sins because of Jesus. There is great joy that comes from repentance.
Grace produces godly sorrow. We enter into true godly sorrow by the grace of God and by supplication (Zechariah 12:10). Grace is getting what we don’t deserve. We don’t deserve for God to love us the way that he does, but because of his great grace, we get what we don’t deserve. Mercy means not getting what we do deserve. The wages of sin is death, but for those of us who have put our faith in Jesus, we have a hope which is life everlasting. We deserve death, but we get life by God’s grace and mercy. We enter into godly sorrow by grace and supplication, which means crying out to God. When we cry out to God we are to look upon Jesus. Jesus died so that we could be covered. When we look upon Jesus and realize that he was pierced for our transgression, then we can’t help but mourn our sin. When we enter into that godly sorrow, then we can’t help but experience change and transformation, and ultimately joy, because we have been comforted. The Holy Spirit comes alongside us and leads us into the paths of righteousness.
In this season of Lent, let’s consider Jesus and look upon that cross at Calvary. When we look upon the price that was paid for our sin, we can’t help but be filled with sorrow for the life that Jesus gave for our sin, and that mourning will produce repentance, and that repentance will produce joy, and that joy will produce strength, and we are comforted in that.
Reflection/Discussion Questions:
1. When was a time that you experienced godly sorrow and repentance?
2. When have you experienced joy as a result of repentance?
3. Take some time to reflect on the grace of God. How has God’s grace impacted your life and your future?
4. Pray and ask God to illuminate any areas of sin that you need to mourn so that you can experience fullness of joy and blessing.