Title: Mercy Me (5)
Series: Get Used to Different
Author: James Merritt
Text: Matthew 5:7
Introduction
1. It is hard to believe it has almost been four decades since the classic movie, The Karate Kid was made. But even those who may not have seen the movie know about a couple of famous lines in the movie. One, of course, is "Wax on, wax off." But there's another famous scene in that movie that many of you will remember and if you've never seen it, it is a classic. Against all odds, a young kid named Daniel LaRusso meets a man named Mr. Miyagi, a karate master, who takes him under his wing and uses the discipline of restoring an old car to teach him some basic karate moves .
2. He enters into a karate tournament against the very people that bullied him at school and he begins to defeat one opponent after the other, to everyone's surprise. Now he meets his number one nemesis. The coach of his enemies wants to make sure he doesn't win, so here's the classic scene. [Show the video] "Sweep the leg. No mercy."
3. Frankly, that attitude toward mercy is seen more and more in our culture today. Just take the political vitriol and anger that we see everywhere. Just watch the debates and everybody wants to "sweep the leg." Just get on Interstate 85 going to work or coming home and see how much mercy there is on the freeway. We are much more ready to sue than we are to sympathize. We are sometimes quick to pray "Lord have mercy on me," but not so much "Lord have mercy on others."
4. Then, we come to what we call, "The Beatitudes" and we've been finding that every one of these beatitudes were both countercultural and counterintuitive to the people that heard them no more than this one.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." (Matthew 5:7, NIV)
This was not just a Jewish culture Jesus was speaking to; it was a Roman culture. Mercy was not a popular concept to the Romans. One popular Roman philosopher called mercy "the disease o ...
Series: Get Used to Different
Author: James Merritt
Text: Matthew 5:7
Introduction
1. It is hard to believe it has almost been four decades since the classic movie, The Karate Kid was made. But even those who may not have seen the movie know about a couple of famous lines in the movie. One, of course, is "Wax on, wax off." But there's another famous scene in that movie that many of you will remember and if you've never seen it, it is a classic. Against all odds, a young kid named Daniel LaRusso meets a man named Mr. Miyagi, a karate master, who takes him under his wing and uses the discipline of restoring an old car to teach him some basic karate moves .
2. He enters into a karate tournament against the very people that bullied him at school and he begins to defeat one opponent after the other, to everyone's surprise. Now he meets his number one nemesis. The coach of his enemies wants to make sure he doesn't win, so here's the classic scene. [Show the video] "Sweep the leg. No mercy."
3. Frankly, that attitude toward mercy is seen more and more in our culture today. Just take the political vitriol and anger that we see everywhere. Just watch the debates and everybody wants to "sweep the leg." Just get on Interstate 85 going to work or coming home and see how much mercy there is on the freeway. We are much more ready to sue than we are to sympathize. We are sometimes quick to pray "Lord have mercy on me," but not so much "Lord have mercy on others."
4. Then, we come to what we call, "The Beatitudes" and we've been finding that every one of these beatitudes were both countercultural and counterintuitive to the people that heard them no more than this one.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." (Matthew 5:7, NIV)
This was not just a Jewish culture Jesus was speaking to; it was a Roman culture. Mercy was not a popular concept to the Romans. One popular Roman philosopher called mercy "the disease o ...
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