Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Transcript

Good morning. I greet you in the name of the risen Lord Jesus Christ and Risen Christ Fellowship in Philadelphia. We’re a small, like-minded church, and please know that you have our prayers and we love you. So it’s an honor to be able to preach God’s word this morning. If you have your Bibles, I want to encourage you to open up to the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 5. And I’m going to read beginning at verse 1, I’m going to read verses 1 to 12. Matthew 5, beginning at verse 1. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. This is the word of God. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray. Our Father in heaven, we give you thanks this morning for your word, because there is nothing like it in this world. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

So, Father, we pray that you would speak to us through your word this morning, that you would magnify your name, and that we would have a sense that we are meeting with the living God. And in this time, Father, we pray that the Spirit of God would use the word of God to reveal the Son of God. And we pray that you would do this for the glory of your beautiful name. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen. Amen. So, this account in Matthew, Chapter 5, this is the section known as the Beatitudes, where the Lord Jesus is pronouncing a series of blessings and promises on certain people. And this account takes place early on in Jesus’ ministry. And so, if you’re familiar with the Gospel of Matthew, you’ll recall that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in chapter 3, verse 16, that he was led by the Spirit

The Countercultural Kingdom

into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for 40 days and 40 nights, in chapter 4, verse 1, and that he began calling his disciples in chapter 4, verse 18 and following. And then, up in Matthew, chapter 4, verse 23, it says that the Lord Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. And so, we see the Sermon on the Mount in this context, that Jesus is proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, the good news of the kingdom of God. And this morning, we’re going to zoom in on verse 4, which says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Needless to say, what the Lord Jesus is describing in these beatitudes is completely countercultural, and that would be in any culture, certainly our culture today.

It goes against every natural human instinct. So, if the world were to give its beatitudes, it would sound something like this, blessed are the rich, for they don’t need anything. Blessed are those who always laugh, because they’re happy. Blessed are those who assert themselves, because they’ll get ahead in life, and so forth. And this is the message that you hear reinforced everywhere, in pop culture, in music, in movies, in academia, on social media. No one is saying, blessed are those who mourn. Nobody is posting a picture of themselves crying on Instagram with the hashtag blessed. It’s just not happening. But all that does is it shows us how opposite the ways of the world are to the ways of God’s kingdom. And this is what we’re seeing on the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus, the king, is describing the ethics of his kingdom. So, in the beatitudes, he’s answering this question,

what does the character of the citizens of God’s kingdom look like? What does the character of the citizens of God’s kingdom look like? And that question must be distinguished from a different question, which is, how does a person enter the kingdom? So, the beatitudes are not answering that question, how does a person enter the kingdom? That question is answered elsewhere in John chapter 3. So, you’ll recall in John chapter 3, in his conversation with Nicodemus, the Lord Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So, you enter into the kingdom of God by being born into it from above. In other words, by experiencing the new birth. It’s in the new birth that our eyes are opened for the very first time, that we see God for who he is, and we see ourselves for who we are,

and that we fall short of God’s glory. We see Christ for who he is, which is the savior of all who trust in him. We see what Jesus did in his sinless life, in his sacrificial death, and in his victorious resurrection. And we repent, we place our trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins, and we recognize that it’s all because of the grace of God that we’re able to do this, and this is how you enter God’s kingdom. One commentator put it this way, the beatitudes are not intended to be a set of rules and regulations with which to measure ourselves and others to see if we are good enough to be in the kingdom. Rather, as those who have been brought into God’s kingdom, it is a call to our hearts and to our minds to be shaped by the reality of who we

are as Christians,” end quote. And so, that’s what’s happening in the beatitudes. Jesus is describing the character of kingdom citizens, and here in verse 4, he says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. One of the things that marks the citizens of God’s kingdom is that they are mourners. And so, if blessedness is happiness, the Lord Jesus is literally saying, happy are the sad. It’s very paradoxical. So, what is Jesus referring to here? Well, in order to understand it, we need to first see what Jesus is not referring to here. And so, that brings us to our first point, which I’ll put in the form of a question. So, all the points this morning are questions. So, question number one, what kind of mourning is not in view in this text? Well, it’s not things like mourning over the death of a loved one because that’s

something that everyone does, including unbelievers. There’s nothing uniquely Christian about that. It’s not mourning because someone you love is in pain, or because you had a bad breakup, or because someone hurt you deeply. It’s not worldly sorrow. So, 2 Corinthians chapter 7 speaks of a worldly grief that leads to death, and a godly grief that leads to salvation. It’s not mourning because you got caught in sin, or mourning simply because of the circumstances. It’s not having a melancholy temperament. So, there are many non-believers who are depressed and mourn because of it. In fact, when I walk around Portland, it seems like everybody’s depressed. But that’s not what’s being spoken of here. It’s not being sad because a movie or a sad song touched your heart and made you cry. No, the mourning that the Lord Jesus is talking about is none of these things because it’s not natural mourning that’s in view here, but spiritual mourning.

What Is Spiritual Mourning?

And that’s because everything in the Beatitudes is spiritual, things that are rooted in the heart. So, in verse 3, when it says, the poor in spirit, it’s not speaking of natural poverty, but spiritual poverty. Down in verse 6, when it speaks of hungering and thirsting for righteousness, that’s not natural hunger, but it’s spiritual hunger. So, therefore, the mourning described here is unique to the citizens of God’s kingdom. It’s unique to Christians. This verse is describing the people of God. So, question number two, what is spiritual mourning? To mourn in this context is to experience grief or sorrow as a result of the proper consideration of the reality and effects of sin. To mourn in this context is to experience grief or sorrow as a result of the proper consideration of the reality and effects of sin. So, mourning involves the affections. It may or may not include actual tears, but it often does.

So, this is not about personality traits. So, some people just naturally cry more than others. For some people, a strong wind can blow by, and they’ll just start crying. But then some people almost never cry. And in our culture, especially men, we’re taught to stifle our tears. So, outside of funerals, it’s rare in our culture to see adults weeping in public. And usually, in public, when people start to cry, they try to hold it back, or they’ll apologize for the tears. This is not about personality type. However, it is an experience that involves the affections. So, Christians are not called to be stone-faced stoics who are never affected by anything. We’re also not called to be aloof, or apathetic, or so cool that nothing bothers us. No, we’re called to be mourners. God’s people mourn because of the reality of sin. What is sin? Simply put, it’s breaking God’s law, right?

We just confessed our sins this morning. It’s falling short of the glory of God, not just in outward actions, but in inward attitudes. Not just in the things that we think, and say, and do, but in the things that we fail to think, and say, and do. It’s failing to live as God created us to live. And it’s not based on fallen human standards, but God’s standards. The standard is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And the Lord Jesus summarized our duty before God in Mark 12.30.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There’s no commandment greater than these.

— Mark 12

(ESV)

That’s the standard. And nobody does it. Nobody does it. And it’s been that way ever since the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3.

And so after they sinned, God pronounced a curse and a judgment. And since that time, we’ve all come into the world with a sin nature, or a disposition towards evil. And this sin has infected the entire world, not just people, but creation itself. So in Romans 8.22, it says, we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. Why? Because of the curse, what that passage calls the bondage to corruption. So sin produces mourning in all who are rightly oriented towards God. In fact, sin is so hideous, so devastating, so destructive, so pervasive, and so dishonoring to God that if we see it rightly, we will mourn. So why do people, God’s people, mourn? This is question number three. Why do God’s people mourn? I want to briefly name six reasons why God’s people mourn. Reason number one, we mourn because of our sin.

We mourn because of our sin. The Christian, first and foremost, is acquainted with his or her own heart. It’s one of the first things that God does in drawing us to himself. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. He begins to show us our heart and how sinful we are, which ultimately causes us to turn to God. And as we walk with the Lord, we become more and more familiar with our own heart and how sinful we are, and it causes us, or it should cause us, to mourn. And the longer we walk with the Lord, the more aware of our sinfulness we become, even though we’re growing in godliness. In fact, one mark of the godly is awareness of their sin. Not many people are more godly than the Apostle Paul, and yet, he’s the one who said, wretched man that I am, in Romans 7.

Now, some people argue, well, that was before he was a believer. That was when he was a young believer. But near the end of his life, in 1 Timothy 1.15, the Apostle Paul says, this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and I am the worst of them. Not I was back in the day, but I am the worst of them, present tense. Now, is this false humility or hyperbole by the Apostle? No. He knew himself to be the worst of sinners because he was most acquainted with his own heart. I’ve been walking with the Lord for 19 years, and I can honestly say that I know myself to be more sinful now than I did 19 years ago. And, you know, this is characteristic of God’s people throughout both the Bible and church history.

So, it caused Ezra and Israel to mourn. In Ezra chapter 10, verse 1, it says, while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children gathered to him out of Israel, for the people wept bitterly. It caused the woman in Luke 7 to mourn. So, you remember the account in Luke 7 where the Lord Jesus is visiting the home of a man named Simon. And this woman is only identified as a sinful woman in that text. But it says in verse 38 that, standing behind Jesus at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wipe them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. It caused Peter to weep and to mourn. Peter denied Jesus three times, and all it took was a look from Jesus,

and Peter wept bitterly. David Brainerd, missionary in the 1700s, wrote in his journal, he wrote, in my mourning devotions, my soul was melted over my exceeding sinfulness and vileness. So, mourning has always characterized the people of God. So, we mourn because of our sin. Number two, we mourn because of the sin of God’s people. We mourn because of the sin of God’s people. Ezekiel 9

, the Lord says to him, pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it. Some of my most, personally, some of my most painful moments in my life as a believer has been connected with the sin of dear brothers and sisters that I love. And a response of mourning will help to keep us from self-righteousness. So, the self-righteous don’t mourn over their own sin, and their response to other

sin is usually not mourning, but anger. And sometimes anger is absolutely a proper response, but the anger should be directed at the dishonor that it causes to God, and perhaps the pain that it causes others. Oftentimes, our anger is more about how it affects us in our little kingdom rather than God’s kingdom. We should be more inclined to mourn over how the sin is destroying their lives and dishonoring to God. Number three, we mourn because of the sinful world that we live in. We mourn because of the sinful world that we live in. So, it’s not just our sin, it’s not just the sin of other Christians, but it’s the sin of our surrounding world. The Apostle Paul mourned in this way. Philippians 3.18, he says, for many of whom I’ve told you often and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

I wonder if we mourn in that way. If we’re not, it’s certainly not because there aren’t enough things that we hear about in the world. In fact, we’re bombarded by the sin of the world on the news, on social media. I think one of the hindrances to our mourning in this way is entertainment. And I think one of the tricks that the evil one does is he uses things like music and movies and social media as tools to trivialize sin, to cause us to either ignore or even laugh at things that grieve God and should grieve us. Christians mourn because of the sinful world that we live in. Number four, we mourn because God is dishonored. We mourn because God is dishonored. I think this one might feel most foreign to us because of our worldliness, but this was certainly the perspective of the psalmist who said in Psalm 119,

verse 136, he said, my eyes shed streams of tears because people do not keep your law. My eyes shed streams of tears because people do not keep your law. When’s the last time we wept because God’s law was being broken? Number five, we mourn because of what sin cost the Savior. We mourn because of what sin cost the Savior. When we think about the cross and when we think about what Jesus had to endure because of our sin, it causes us to mourn. One commentator put it like this, Christians understand what sin cost. And not just sin in general, but specifically what my sin cost. They know that each and every one of their sins was piled up onto Jesus on the cross. My sin was pounding the nails into his hands. My sin was pressing the crown of thorns onto his head. My sin was driving his sense of utter abandonment by God.

When we realize that, then the knowledge that we sin each and every day through accident, through not doing the things we ought, and through our own deliberate fault becomes something we weep over. Christians mourn their own sins and the heart attitude of rebellion from which all of those actual sins arise, end quote. Number six, we mourn because of sin’s end. We mourn because of sin’s end. Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. And that death in that verse is not temporal death, but eternal death. When’s the last time we mourned that people are going to hell, dying under God’s wrath every single day? That is the end of sin. And perhaps we don’t share the gospel as we should because we don’t mourn like we should. Or maybe some of us used to mourn, but over time we stopped because we didn’t see any fruit from our evangelism and we lost a sense of urgency.

The Ultimate Mourner

Brothers and sisters, let us not forget to mourn the lost. Charles Spurgeon said this, he said, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions and let not one go there unwarned or unprayed for, end quote. Question number five, who is the ultimate mourner? Who is the ultimate mourner? As we’ve seen, this kind of mourning, mourning over sin, characterizes the people of God. We see in scripture that it also characterized the Lord Jesus himself. And we shouldn’t be surprised to see that. The master doesn’t tell his servants what they should be like without first modeling it himself. And the Bible teaches clearly that Jesus himself mourned.

Isaiah 53 verse 3, he’s known as a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. No one mourned like Jesus mourned. We fail to mourn as we should because we don’t see sin as we should. And we don’t see sin as we should because we don’t see God’s holiness as we should. You remember Isaiah 6, his woe is me, right? He cried out, woe is me, after he saw the holiness of God. And once he saw God for who he was, then he saw himself for who he is. Well, no one knows God and his holy righteous standards better than the Lord Jesus himself. No one knows how offensive sin is to a holy God more than Jesus. That’s why he was a man of sorrows. And he mourned for a number of reasons. He mourned over Israel’s hardness of heart. So in Luke 19 verse 41, it says that when he drew near and saw the city,

he wept over it saying, would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes. So he mourned as he contemplated the hardness of heart of Israel. He also mourned over the cost of sin. As he anticipated the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Lord Jesus said, my soul is very sorrowful even to death. Hebrews 5 verse 7 says of Jesus that in the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his reverence. That should make us pause for a moment and just consider how is it that the one who experienced pleasures at God right hand forevermore, how did he subject himself to mourning? He had no reason to do it other than the glory of God and his love for his people.

The Lord Jesus was the ultimate mourner. And so question number six, what is the comfort for mourners? What is the comfort for mourners? Look again at verse 4, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Now, when it says they shall be comforted, it points to future ultimate comfort, but it also applies now. So the word for comfort in this verse is a form of the word paraclete, which is what the Holy Spirit is called. So God’s people experienced the comfort of the Holy Spirit in this life when we mourn over sin. And the way that he comforts us is through reminding us of the gospel, reminding us that we are children of God, reminding us of the hope that we have in Christ. In Isaiah chapter 40, verse 1 and 2, it says, comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended,

that her iniquity is pardoned. And so we experience a measure of this comfort from the Holy Spirit when we sing, when we sing truthful things from God’s word about his character and the gospel. We experience a measure of this comfort in this life when we take communion, as we will do a little later. We experience the comfort of the spirit as we consider Jesus’ body broken for us and his blood poured out for us. We experience a measure of this comfort in prayer as we call out to God and cast all of our burdens on God, knowing that he cares for us. And we experience a measure of this comfort as we hear the word of God, as he speaks his truth to us from the scriptures. And as great as those things are, as necessary as those things are, we receive them imperfectly in this life. So our ultimate comfort will ultimately come in heaven, not in this life,

Comfort for Mourners

in an ultimate sense. And my wife pointed out about this verse, I think, astutely. She said that, it doesn’t say that, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comfortable. It says, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted, right? Big difference. God has appointed trials and suffering in this life for believers that we might become more like Christ. And part of becoming more like Christ is to mourn like he did. So as we close, I just want to give some words of application. Application number one, let this be a warning to the unconverted. Let this verse be a warning to the unconverted. This comfort spoken of here is only for mourners, spiritual mourners. It’s only for Christians. It’s not for the wicked. It’s not for those who refuse to repent and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, for those who die in their sins, there is no comfort.

Living as Mourners

There’s only weeping and gnashing of teeth. In the parallel passage to this, in Luke 6, verse 25, it says, Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. And when he says that, he’s speaking of those who laugh without a care in the world about their sin and how it separates them from a holy God. And so, one way to look at it is laugh now, mourn later, mourn now, laugh later. The call to all is to repent, to turn from your sins, and to place your trust in Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ alone. Application number two, examine yourselves by this doctrine. Examine yourselves by this doctrine. Does this verse describe you? Do you mourn over your sin? Do you mourn over what it costs the Savior? Do you mourn over the sins of believers, of the sin in the world? Do you mourn that God is dishonored?

Does this describe you? And again, it’s not about personality type. We all have different temperaments. But if you’ve never mourned over your sin, if that’s never happened, then you should be concerned because Jesus is describing Christians here. Number three, pray for this kind of heart. Pray for this kind of heart. There’s some people who say, you know what, I see it, I agree with it, and I want to be that, but I’m not that as I should. And in some measure, that should be all of us, right? None of us mourn as we should. But here’s the thing about that is we can’t make ourselves into mourners, right? So that’s not something that we just kind of drum up on our own and do ourselves. No, that is a grace that happens through the Holy Spirit. So while we can’t make ourselves this way, one thing that we can do is we can cry

out to God and say, God, break my heart. God, make me into a mourner. Give me a deeper awareness of my own sin that I might mourn over it. Psalm 51 verse 17 says, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. So it’s not something that we want to fake, right? We want to be authentic. We want to be real about this, and God honors those who are broken. Number four, identify the hindrances that are keeping you from mourning. Identify the hindrances that keep you from mourning. And the question I’m asking is, what are the things in your life that cause you to take sin lightly? What are the things in your life that cause you to take sin lightly? It could be people in your lives. It could be non-Christian family or coworkers.

Ask that question: What is it that we’re laughing at? What is it that we’re being entertained by? Second Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 12 speaks of people who did not love the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Had pleasure in unrighteousness. Are you taking pleasure in unrighteousness? The movies and the shows that you watch, what are they communicating? We’re not called to blindly accept what we see and hear, but we’re called to identify sin as sin. And this doesn’t mean that we’re supposed to be gloomy, right? So we’re called to be sorrowful yet always rejoicing. And part of the fruit of the spirit is joy. But the point is that for the believer, it’s not superficial joy, but it’s sober-minded joy. As believers, we don’t just plaster smiles on our face like everything is fine when it’s not. No, we’re called to be joyful, but it is a sober-minded joy.

But I think the problem of our age is not that we’re too sober, but that we don’t take things seriously enough. Everything is a joke or a meme. And for that mindset, James has an exhortation for us. He says,

draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. And then he ends with a promise. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

— James 4

(ESV)

That’s James 4, verses 8 to 10. Next exhortation of application is familiarize yourself with the doctrine of sin. Familiarize yourself with the doctrine of sin. One way to do that is to read through the book of Leviticus. So if you haven’t read through Leviticus in a while, take some time this week to just read through.

And one thing that becomes very, very clear as you read through Leviticus is that God is holy. He is out of this world, literally, when it comes to his holiness. And what that does is that makes us, when you see all of the regulations and you see how meticulous the worshipers had to be in Leviticus just to approach God and to be ceremonially clean, it’s just clear how spotless and perfect he is. And that will give us a sense of how seriously he takes sin and how seriously we should take sin. Familiarize yourself with the doctrine of sin. I have a book recommendation, which is an excellent book by a Puritan author named Ralph Venning, and it’s called The Sinfulness of Sin. And it just systematically walks through what the Bible has to say about sin. And I highly recommend that. I like this quote by John MacArthur.

He says this about sin. He says, sin tramples on God’s laws, makes light of his love, grieves his spirit, spurns his forgiveness and blessing, and in every way resists his grace. Sin makes us weak and makes us impure. It robs us of comfort, and much more importantly, it robs God of glory. We need to develop this kind of understanding of sin, and that will help us to walk in the blessedness that the Lord Jesus is referring to here. Children, to all the children in the room, I just want to address the children. I see a few. Yeah, I see one right there. Okay, just looking for all the kids. I see you. I see children up there. Okay. Children, there are a lot of bad and scary things in this world, but the thing that we should most be afraid of outside of God is our sin.

Our own sin should terrify us. Our own, the way that we rebel against God and do things that God does not like, that should scare us more than anything. And children, the good news this morning is that God came to deal with our sin, that scary thing, that thing that we should be scared of. And the way that he dealt with it is that he sent Jesus to come into this world, to live a perfect life that none of us have ever lived, to die on the cross, to pay for all of the scary sins that we have in our own hearts, and then to be raised from the grave. Jesus did that. And he did it so that if we turn from our sin and believe in what he did when he died on the cross and rose from the grave, he promises that he’ll do away with all

of our sins and that we’ll be able to spend eternity in heaven, enjoy away from sin and with God forever. That’s the good news this morning, children. If you have any questions about that, ask your mommy, ask your daddy about that. We have to develop a biblical understanding of sin. The final application is be encouraged if this is you. So if you read this verse, blessed are those who mourn, and you see yourself and say, yes, this is me, many of you are very familiar with this kind of mourning. And I want to encourage you, be encouraged. God is at work. He is at work. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions, not some of our afflictions. He comforts us in all of our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those

who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. So God, in his mercy and in his grace, he sends affliction to the people of God with a very specific purpose, that he might ultimately be glorified as the God of all comfort. So as we conclude, I want us to consider this verse in Isaiah 61, verse 2. So this is what the Lord Jesus quoted about himself in Luke 4, Isaiah 61, verse 2. This is what the Lord Jesus says in terms of what the Messiah’s ministry would be. It says, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty

to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. So that’s part of the Lord Jesus’ job assignment, is to comfort all those who mourn. And as I said, we experience a measure of that in this life, but ultimately, we experience it in glory. Revelation 21, verse 3 says,

I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

— Revelation 21

(ESV)

And may that cause us all to call out, come Lord Jesus, come quickly.

Let’s pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you that you are not a distant God, but that you are a God who is close by, that you are a God who is acquainted with grief. You know us, you know our pain, and we thank you that in the person of your son, you didn’t stay removed from our pain, but you entered into our pain, that we might find hope, and life, and peace. And so, Father, I pray that even as we consider the blessing for those who mourn, that you would be at work even now as we take the Lord’s Supper to grant comfort, the comfort of your spirit in the midst of our mourning. Do this for the glory of your name we ask, in Jesus’ name, amen.