Rewriting The Code:

Spirit-Shaped Gentleness



A Sermon On:

Galatians 5: 23

Matthew 5: 1-12

Matthew 11: 25-30



PREPARED BY

KEN GEHRELS

PASTOR

CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH

NEPEAN, ONTARIO



INTRODUCTION - Picking Rotten Beans

Spent some time recently in our vegie garden picking beans. Planted the seeds with the kids in the spring, and watched the plants poke their heads up and explode in size. Fruit developed and a decent crop developed.
Except that when I picked, down at the bottom I found, every once in a while, a bunch of damaged fruit. It seems to be suffocated under the weight of everything else, experienced no air circulation, and began to rot.
There was simply too much of a good thing.
Drooping, in some cases dripping - dead, losers in the mad bean race for survival.


I The Bruised Reeds Of Our World Need Gentleness
"Come unto me all you who are weary and burdened" said Jesus. The prophet Isaiah said of him "A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not snuff out" (Is 42.3).
Can you pictured the bruised reed? Bent over, discoloured, having been beaten and broken by some force, perhaps a person whipping their way through a cattail marsh and thrashing a stick ahead of him, bashing the cattails to the side to ease his progress, leaving a clearly marked trail of destruction in his wake.
Or the smoldering wick - gasping for air, almost drowning in the wax, weak and flickering, we just waiting for it to go out in a feeble puff of smoke.


Isn't our world full of people like that - while all around there are those who are barrelling full steam ahead, racing to the top, full of the zest for life, growing and bearing spectacular fruit, underneath, at the bottom of the pile, if you search carefully and listen patiently you find the losers in the mad bean race for survival; the bruised reeds, the ones whose light of life is barely flickering.


Perhaps you feel like that yourself, perhaps right now - do you... or someone close to you?
Abused - maybe emotionally always put down, or kept in a social corner, or physically slapped around, or sexually mistreated.... it happens, even here in the church more often than you care to imagine.
Afraid - you have tried something and failed and you're too shook up to try again, or you see people whizzing by on their way to the top and you feel paralysed by their speed.
Ashamed - you've blown it badly in some way, a moral nuclear bomb, a sinful disaster.
Discouraged - absolutely nothing seems to go right, people always seem down on your case, things work for them but me... hah!
Grieving, angry, embarrassed, worried, longing, hoping, waiting, empty..... smoldering, bruised.

"Come unto me," said Jesus while he ministered on earth. "Come unto me for I am gentle and humble in heart..."
And now we stand as his ambassadors. WE in the church are his Body, his hands his feet. We are his gentleness to the world.


Which is why he sent the Holy Spirit to, among other things, provide the church with spiritual fruits. One of those is gentleness.
The fruit of the Spirit is.... gentleness.


II What Gentleness Isn't
Gentleness.... what is it? Let's start with what it isn't.


To be gentle is NOT to be anaemic, sentimental and aimless - wimpy. Don't think of gentleness as a strait jacket to action. The strait jacket binds people. It holds them down and effectively immobilises them. Regarding gentleness and the Christian it looks something like this:



Little Jesus meek and mild, lovey dovey, all that kind of stuff....
And the wrappings of the strait jacket wind ever tighter around.


To speak of gentleness, then, as working for peace at any cost, as being carefree or careless, as bowing to any and all pressures, is to miss the point. That is not gentleness; that's life like a glass of coke gone flat.


Gentleness is not impotence.


III Gentleness Defined
So then, what is it? Look to your scriptures, Matthew 11.25-30:
"I praise you Father... because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children...."
Children are little people who know where their security is - in the arms of a loving mommy or daddy. They are ones who have an unabashed trust that mom and dad will look out for their best interest.
It is gentle and humble Jesus who thanks his Father for this - Jesus who has submitted himself to his Father's will and rests quietly and quite comfortably there.
Gentleness is found in those who know where their security is found and who can relax in that security.


Then open your bible to the sermon on the mount, Matthew 5. There is a list of different characteristics. One of them is "meekness". That's the same Greek word as used in Galatians for "gentleness."
Notice the placement of Meekness in this list of Matthew 5: between those who mourn (after sin) and those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
You may need to roll that around in the mind for a few moments. But when you do it seems to suggest that there is in meekness a right estimation of ourselves, an honest evaluation of who and what we are, an unabashed self-appraisal and willingness to admit such in the presence of God and his people.
- we mourn our sin and weaknesses
- we hunger and thirst for living righteousness


Both Matthew 11 and Matt 5 reveal pictures of the working principle of meekness/gentleness - it is that of the child, that given to the poor in spirit and the mourners.
It is given to those who have climbed off their high horse, and toddled into another place to rest secure, to live without fear; without always looking back over their shoulder and watching for their own well-being.


The original Greek word, Prautes is used of domestic animals whose great strength has been reined in and brought under control.
THAT, more than anything else defines gentleness - strength under control.


And in that way, the truly gentle person, whose strength is under control, is still very much able to use that strength in a positive manner.


The gentle person doesn't push aggressively ahead only looking to her own future and the goal she has set. She also takes account of those that she could so easily step on and crush in the process of moving forward and consolidating her position in life; you know, the losers in the mad bean race for survival.


The opposite of gentleness/meekness is pride. The proud person, comments Martin Lloyd-Jones, is sensitive about himself, always watches himself and his own interests, is always on the defensive, worried about his own position in life [Sermon On The Mount 68].


The proud person is constantly comparing herself to the next person:


"Jesus, it's not fair. Tell Mary to come here into the kitchen and help me prepare the supper instead of lounging in the easy boy."
"Daddy, that's not FAIR! Michael's piece is bigger than mine. And HE got the cherry!"


Pride possesses a person; gentleness frees a person.


IV Gentleness exemplified
The Bible calls Moses the meekest - or gentlest - man on earth (Num 12.1-13)
If we look at his life and times we see a truly impressive person. He had the best of all possible educations in the royal courts of the Pharaoh. He had been called by no less than God himself to lead the people of Israel to freedom. When he stretched out his hand the Red Sea parted to bring the people to safety, and closed up to destroy the feared Egyptian army. He spoke with God on top of a mountain, face to face, when the rest of the people had been told that should they so much as touch the mountain, they would instantly die.
The life of Moses is truly a picture of strength.
And yet, time and again, when the people confronted him, and verbally assaulted him, threatened to kill him, and challenged his leadership role, he never pushed around his weight. Never did he become overbearing. His is the prime example of great strength and impressive prestige, all under control.


But does that mean that Moses was a wimp, that he never used his strength. Ah, certainly - Moses wasn't insistent on pushing forward his own agenda and reputation. He was more than willing to let that take a back seat. But when God's work needed doing, the gloves came off, the gauntlet was thrown down, all restraints were abandoned.
Just picture Moses descending from Sinai. God is abandoned while the people flirt with pagan rituals around a calf. Meek, gentle Moses smashes the sacred tablets of stone with the ten commandments, the golden calf was ground down and the people forced to drink it.
The people murmur against God. Gossip is spread. Agitators work the back of the crowds, stirring them up. It threatens to become a mob scene. But Moses, with powerful strength, stands his ground for God's cause. He refuses to wimp out the back door.
Gentleness/meekness: strength under control.


Some of the most powerful gentleness that I have ever seen happen has been within the boundaries of the Alcoholics Anonymous movement. The follow the principles of the sermon on the Mount - beginning with an honest admission of their guilt and brokenness and powerlessness over the evil of alcohol. And they carry on with a thorough and searching inventory of their lives. Then they move to restitution of those they have hurt and to a lifestyle of helping others in difficulty.
When confronted with their own total failures and an honest picture of themselves, as they mourn that arrogance is crippled, pride is punctured. They become equipped to serve others gently, with strength gained through help they have received and through their own personal struggles and from the various gifts of inner strength and time and arranged circumstances and friends that God has provided them with.
And the most amazing thing is that time after time, they realize at the end of it all that while they had been busy looking out for the interests of those they help, and as they have not been paranoid about their own needs, in fact THEY THEMSELVES have been the greatest beneficiaries of the whole process. Charlie C. said to me, "You know Ken, you grow the most by giving the most."
Gentleness in action, strength under control.


Some of the most unstable shows of power and self-interest and defensiveness have happened within the context of the Church. Doctrinal p's & q's are debated, families torn apart, while a world in desperate need is forgotten.
I remember one Aid Worker from CRWRC pleading, "come over here for a while where you are forced to put gentleness into action and all the other stuff will fall by the way."


We need gentleness in our churches
We need gentleness with our children
We need gentleness in the way we care for ourselves and set expectations for ourselves
We need gentleness in the way we treat creation
We need gentleness in the way we restore fallen sinners.


CONCLUSION
For that to happen, we'll need a mighty work of God's Spirit. It will need Him to reprogramme our inner moral and spiritual computers. Because the natural tendency of human beings is to self-preservation, self-promotion - pride.
Left to ourselves, gentleness simply isn't on the agenda.


As we draw this series on the Fruit of the Spirit to a close, as we consider some of the dimensions and contours of that spiritual fruit, and look back on some of the ways that He grows that fruit, let's finally remember this great point - HE grows the fruit.
The Spirit.


In hearts, minds and bodies that prayerfully, willingly, carefully look for and receive His guidance, His shaping, His directing.
Moldable hearts, minds and bodies.


May we be found to be such people - gentle, Christ-like people.