Living Your Blest Life Now - Part Three

Encountering Jesus: the Gospel of Matthew

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

May 10, 2026

Living Your Blest Life Now Part Three

We are going through the gospel of Matthew in a series called Encountering Jesus so let’s turn together to Matt. 5 and we’ll be reading vv. 1-9.

5 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

² And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

⁴ “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

⁵ “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

⁶ “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

⁷ “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

The gospel of Matthew emphasizes Jesus as the Sovereign King of the kingdom of heaven and the sermon on the mount gives us a beautiful glimpse into the ethics and values of the kingdom. Jesus opens this sermon with nine pronouncements of blessing. These are the character qualities that the kingdom of God blesses. God doesn’t want you living your best life now – that’s reserved for the day we enter Jesus’ eternal kingdom and he says to us “enter into the joy of your Master”. But God does want His children to live a blest life now – not necessarily an easy life or a comfortable life but a blessed life. An abundant life.

This morning we come to the fifth character quality that the kingdom blesses:

⁷ “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Mercy is an interesting quality. Mirriam Webster defines mercy as: kind or forgiving treatment of someone who could be treated harshly; kindness or help given to people who are in a very bad or desperate situation. John Stott describes mercy as "compassion for people in need." Mercy is a rich and complicated biblical concept but no matter what form mercy takes, it always flows downward, never upward. The weak don’t have mercy on the strong. The poor don’t have mercy on the rich. The outcast doesn’t show mercy to the well-connected. Mercy flows downward, never upward.

Jesus is teaching us that the kingdom of heaven values mercy and the person who cultivates a merciful heart will be blessed. And it’s not hard to see why. The Bible tells us that God is a merciful God.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; ²³ they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23

God’s mercy doesn’t exist in a vacuum. His mercies never come to an end because His steadfast love never ends. As long as God is loving He is merciful and God will always be loving therefore God will always be merciful. Every morning God has new mercy in store for us!

One of the things I enjoy when I’m driving my bus in the morning is that moment when the sun rises over the horizon. It cheers my heart as it announces a new day! And God says, I have fresh mercy for you today. I’m so grateful that God is a merciful God, aren’t you? I need it!

Mercy is an expression of compassion. Mercy is kind to the needy and is generous to the poor. It’s mercy that makes possible the promise of the first beatitude: blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

How do we enter the kingdom of heaven? What qualifies us to enter Jesus’ kingdom? The Bible says it’s acknowledging to God our spiritual poverty and need. Those who come to God rich, like the Pharisee who prayed a prayer thanking God for making him such a great guy, leave God’s presence poor. If we come to God offering our own riches, like being a moral person, keeping our religious traditions, having good intentions, and such, we will find the gates of the kingdom closed to us.

But when we come poor, like the tax collector who prayed, “have mercy on me, a sinner” we leave rich. Jesus said it was the tax collector, not the Pharisee, who left justified. God in His mercy justified – made righteous – the man who knew he was so unrighteous he couldn’t even lift his eyes to heaven.

"He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit" Titus 3:5.

We aren’t saved by our own righteousness, we are saved by mercy. Through the cross God is able to show the unjust mercy without compromising His justice. At the cross justice and mercy kissed (Ps. 85:10). Christ died as our atoning sacrifice, fully satisfying God’s justice so that God could be both just and the justifier of those who place their faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:26).

Mercy is at the heart of the gospel in the same way that forgiveness is at the heart of the gospel. Jesus came to save us because God was moved with compassion to have mercy on us. No mercy, no gospel. But this fifth beatitude does raise a question for us.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. (vs. 7)

It almost reads as a quid pro quo. We need to give mercy if we are to get mercy. So if our salvation is entirely based on receiving the mercy of God (and it is), and the only way we can receive God's mercy is by being merciful, does that mean that showing mercy is the entrance fee to heaven? Are we earning mercy from God by being merciful to others?

We know that’s not true. We don't earn God's mercy by being merciful. God's mercy has been extended purely on the basis of His love and grace, not as a response to anything we have or ever will do. Titus 3:5 says we were saved according to His mercy, not according to our mercy which activated His mercy.

The presence of mercy in our hearts doesn’t save us, it shows that we have been saved. Having mercy in our hearts isn’t the entrance fee to the kingdom, it is evidence that we have been born again into the kingdom. Anyone born again of the Spirit will have the DNA of that new birth, the DNA of Christ-likeness, in them and that will include mercy.

As we continue through the gospel of Matthew we will come to the parable Jesus tells that compares the kingdom of heaven to a servant who is shown an exorbitant amount of mercy only to turn around and have not the slightest amount of mercy for a servant who owes him a little bit. It does not end well for that merciless servant.

I think we can sum it up by saying, if Christ’s mercy has flowed to us, his mercy will flow out of us.

In our final moments let’s talk a little bit about practicing mercy and what it does and doesn’t look like. Just gonna take five minutes.

1. Be careful to discern the difference between mercy and condescension

Mercy flows from compassion. Condescension (as we commonly use the word today) flows from pride. Condescension sees helping someone in need as an opportunity to build up our own sense of superiority. Condescension makes us the heroes who swoop in and save the day so we can feel good about ourselves.

As we show mercy to someone in need, we should always remember how much mercy we’ve been shown and find our joy in the knowledge that God is using us as a vessel through whom He is spreading His mercy to others.

2. Mercy that denies justice isn’t mercy

As we’ve talked about, God did not deny justice in order to show mercy. Through Christ God both upheld justice and extended mercy at the same time. In Christ, as Ps 85 says, justice and mercy have kissed. It’s not unmerciful to hold someone who has done wrong accountable for that wrong, in fact it would be unmerciful to not hold them accountable.

Justice can exist without mercy, but mercy cannot exist without justice. Mercy can be

3. If you struggle to show mercy…keep struggling!

Jesus makes a very strong implication in the fifth beatitude: those who aren’t merciful won’t be shown mercy. That is true, but what about someone who is struggling to show mercy.

• Maybe someone hurt you and you want justice without mercy!
• Maybe you have “mercy-fatigue”. There are so many needs and needy around you that you just don’t feel like you have any mercy left to give.
• Maybe your personality is more oriented towards justice than mercy. Paul lists mercy and doing acts of mercy as a spiritual gift from the Holy Spirit. Some have a spiritual gift of mercy while others do not.

If you’re struggling to feel and show mercy, don’t fear that you won’t be shown mercy. The struggle reveals the work of the Spirit! The entire Christian life is a struggle! We struggle to love. To have faith. To fight fear. To overcome temptation. The struggle doesn’t mean we don’t belong to Jesus, it’s evidence that we do!

Come ye weary heart (or struggling with showing mercy heart) to Jesus. Ask Jesus to convince your soul how beautiful mercy is. To remind you of the exorbitant amount of mercy he’s shown you. And to help you extend that mercy – from the heart – to others in need.

Close with this exhortation from Micah

He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8