Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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I’m kind of surprised anybody came back this week. I mean, I look pretty ugly when I cry. And I know that to be true, because one time a few years ago, I looked into a mirror when I was just balling while I was watching Toy Story 3. Saddest movie ever! You know what I’m talking about. When Andy gives all his toys to the little girl, who’s going to enjoy them and take care of them and play with them like toys are supposed to be played with. It’s so sad! Those Toy Story movies are getting sadder and sadder!

But it’s a happy kind of sad, you know? They better not make a Toy Story 4, because I’ll just have to lock myself in my room and cry for a few days!

So anyway, I was balling, and I thought to myself, I’ve never actually seen myself cry. So I rushed over to a mirror, looked at myself, and just started laughing because I am so ugly when I cry! I looked disgusting! My eyes had pools of tears under them, my cheeks were soaked, my bottom lip was protruding, and my nose was running ever so slightly! I was ugly!

And yet, there’s something beautiful about tears, isn’t there?

Tears remind us of how precious life is. When we cry because we’re sad, the tears express the brokenness of our world and of our souls. And when we cry because we’re happy, it’s because we’re so overwhelmed with joy that we can’t bottle it all up, and a smile just won’t do, we need to let it all out! And we might look so sad, but it’s a happy kind of sad.

Have you ever felt that way? It’s interesting that we express both extreme sadness and extreme joy with tears. It’s almost like, these things are related. Maybe they are. Maybe God chooses those who are poor, and low, and sorrowful in the eyes of the world, and makes them to be rich in faith, full of joy in Christ, so that they inherit the kingdom promised to those who love Him. That’s what it says in James 2:5. And that’s the gospel. Because in order for any of us to have joy in Christ, we must realize that we cannot have joy without Christ.

Read Luke 6:20-23

Although crowds pressed in to hear Him and be touched by Him, Jesus spoke primarily to His disciples (v. 20a). Really, that’s how all of the Bible works. The book is available to all people. And everyone is invited to find life in its words. But if you look at who the original recipients of the letters and books in the Bible were, you find that the the Bible was written not to unbelievers, but to believers. Sure, sometimes the believers being written to seem more like weak or former believers than strong and active believers, but they were confessing believers nonetheless. You see, the message of the cross, and the message of all of the Bible, is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it’s the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18.

So here’s the thing. It’s great if you come here because you have questions about faith, and that you’re looking for answers, and you’re maybe even slowly coming around to this Jesus guy. But at some point, you just have to put your faith in Him. You can’t keep putting it off and putting it off. You will never have all of your questions answered. I don’t have all of my questions answered. I don’t know where heaven and hell are. I don’t know how Jesus could have all of the power of God and yet be limited as a human being. I don’t know if Adam and Eve had belly buttons. I don’t know!

But God doesn’t say, “Read the Bible, get all of your questions answered, and then believe and be saved.” He says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved.” Life is not about having all the answers, it’s about trusting in the One who has all the answers. And even when we’re confused about our circumstances, as to why God would allow us to experience such pain and sorrow, we can lean on Him, because Jesus also knows what it is to experience pain and sorrow.

So in this passage, we see how Jesus pronounced blessings on His disciples, who were hurting (v. 20b-22). Jesus called them poor, because they were. And they knew it. Jesus called them hungry, because they were. And they felt it. Jesus saw that they wept, because they did. They couldn’t hide it. And Jesus called them hated, because they would be. And they needed to be ready for it.

It’s important to note that Jesus was talking primarily to His disciples when He said these things because He wasn’t just talking about being poor, hungry, sad, or hated in general.

It’s not a blessing to be financially poor in general. But if you’re poor because you use what God gives you for His glory, not for your gain, then you will have treasure in heaven, because you show that you’re poor in spirit, one who knows their brokenness, and one who trusts in the one who can restore them.

And it’s not a blessing to be hungry just because you have no food to eat. But if, while you’re hungry, you’re trusting in God to sustain you, and if you’re hungry even more for the Word of God than for food, then God will allow you to taste and see that the Lord is good.

And it’s not a blessing to weep over your sad circumstances. But if you weep over your sin, and over the sins of our world, and you cry out to God for forgiveness, God will show you His grace and you will be filled with joy for all eternity.

And it’s definitely not a blessing to be hated in general. But if you’re hated for the sake of Jesus Christ, because you share your faith in Him with others, and they don’t want to hear it, even still, God loves to hear it, and He will shower you with His love.

So Jesus called His disciples, who were poor, and hungry, and weeping, and hated, “blessed.” He called them blessed. That can also be translated “happy.” But it’s not merely happiness. It’s a deep-rooted happiness. The word can also be translated, “supremely blessed” or “fortunate” or “well-off.”

That seems kind of funny, doesn’t it? I mean, when I’m poor, or hungry, or weeping, or hated, I don’t feel very well-off! When you’re hungry, I mean really hungry, you don’t go around and say, “I’m so hungry! It’s great!”

And yet, when we suffer in these kinds of conditions for the sake of Christ, because we love Him, and because we love to go where He leads us, then these kinds of conditions don’t bother us as much, because we have Jesus. And if we have Jesus, we have everything! We might look sad in the eyes of the world, but it’s a happy kind of sad. Kind of like when Andy gave all his toys to a little girl. He was sad, and yet he was happy.

Maybe being sorrowful isn’t such a bad thing.

Think of it like this: if you could, just for a day, turn rocks into gold just by touching them, you’d go around all day long and just touch rocks, right? I don’t think you’d get tired of it. I mean, touching rocks isn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but I bet you could put up with it for a day.

We get a ton of those gumballs in our yard every year just before it’s time to start mowing. And I hate mowing over them, they get all cut up, and just leave a mess on the yard. So a couple weeks back, I told my kids, “Go out into the yard and pick up 100 gumballs each, and for every gumball you pick up, I’ll give you a penny!” So what did they do? They went out and picked up 100 gumballs each. And if I hadn’t put a cap on how many they could pick up, they would have picked up even more. I bet they would have picked up every single gumball in the yard. Why? Because they were turning these worthless gumballs into something they wanted.

God tells us that He will turn our sorrows into joy. Did you get that? He’ll turn your sorrows into joy! In the context of faith in Christ, we know that joy comes in the morning! Really, this life is so short, and if God is going to turn our sorrows to joy, I bet we can put up with our sorrows for a short time.

In fact, if God’s going to turn them to joy, I bet we could even go into situations that we know are going to be full of sorrows as we seek to obey God, but go into them with joy, because we know that we’re building up treasures in heaven.

So don’t be afraid of being sorrowful. Don’t be afraid of hard times, if they’re for the glory of God. Be glad, because God is making it all work out for your good.

And yet, in this life we do experience many hardships. In fact, the last blessing Jesus spoke to His disciples is that they would be blessed when people hated them, excluded them, reviled them, and spurned their names as evil. How could that possibly be a blessing? I mean, this doesn’t sound like a great time!

How’d you like to have that as the theme of your next birthday party? Put it on a banner. “Happy Birthday, Jess! Hated, Excluded, Reviled, and Spurned.” “For he’s a jolly good fellow!” No! Of course not! Being poor, hungry, and a cry baby are bad enough, but hated? Excluded? Reviled? Having your name spurned as evil? That’s like if your best friend suddenly turned against you, and started telling everyone, “Don’t trust that Pastor Chris guy. He’s a real jerk. He’s the worst person I know. If I ever I see him again, I’m going to spit in his face, and you should, too.” How can that possibly work out to be a blessing?

The key has something to do with how these same things were done to the prophets (v. 23). The prophets were hated because they brought the Word of God to a people who didn’t want to hear the Word of God. So if Jesus’s disciples recognize that the prophets, who were highly respected, who spoke for God, who were in the center of God’s will for their lives, if they were treated like that because of their faith, and if they wanted to follow in their footsteps, then they should expect the same treatment from a world hostile toward God. And when they received the same treatment, they should leap for joy, because it confirmed to them that they had not abandoned the faith of their fathers.

And when we stand up and hold up the Word of God, we will be hated as well. When we say that we believe the Bible’s stance on homosexuality, we’re hated. When we say that we believe that all of life is sacred, and that abortion is murder, we’re hated. When we say that we believe greed is sin, and that lust is sin, and that gossip is sin, and that laziness is sin, and that those who sin cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven, we’re hated.

Now wait a minute, Pastor. I’m fine with you talking about other peoples’ sins, and about how we need to clean up our country, but now you’re stepping on my toes. That’s fine, because I’m stepping on my own toes, too. Because we’ve all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. None of us are righteous in ourselves. None of us have earned God’s favor. And none of us deserve heaven as our home.

But there’s good news. Jesus died for sin, my sin, your sin, so that when we place our faith in Him, God covers our sin with the blood of Jesus. And it’s sad that our Savior had to die for us, but it’s a happy kind of sad. Because through Jesus, we’re cleansed from our sin. Our sin is gone. It’s washed away. This is the message that we embrace. And it causes us to weep for joy. And when we weep like that, God doesn’t see us as ugly, but as beautiful.

When we recognize that we’re poor in spirit, and we hunger for righteousness, we cry not because our misery, but because we know that God is able to comfort those who cry out to Him. Because ours is the kingdom of God. And we are satisfied in Christ. And we laugh, because this world can’t get us down. This world isn’t our home, we’re filled with joy because Jesus is our Savior, who will forgive us of all our sin when we trust in Him.

And this the message we want every person in the world to embrace, because there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved, only Jesus Christ.

I’ve shied away from using what’s called the sinner’s prayer in my sermons, simply because a prayer doesn’t save a person. Jesus saves you when you place your faith in Him. But the simple reality is that when you place your faith in Jesus, you will pray. You’ll thank Him for what He’s done in you and for you.

So whether you’ve prayed this way before, or never before, I invite you to pray with me right now. Dear God, I know that I’m a sinner. And I know that I deserve the consequences of my sin. So I place my faith in Jesus as my Savior and Lord. Thank you for forgiving me and saving me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

If you prayed that for the first time, and you prayed it truly having faith in Jesus, then please, tell me, or tell your friend who brought you, so that we can weep for joy that you’ve become a part of our family, the family of God.