Grace Community Church, Arlington, TX

We’ve been doing this series based on Rev 19:7-8. It reads…

What will the Bride, that has made herself ready, look like on the earth before Jesus comes again?

These five leadership spiritual gifts must function until three things happen.
1. Unity – “until we all attain to the unity of the faith.”
2. Intimacy – “until we all attain to the experiential knowledge of the Son of God”
3. Maturity – “until we all attain to the measure of the stature that belongs to the fullness of Christ”

That is what the bride that Jesus is coming back for will look like. Unity, Intimacy, and Maturity. And it is the responsibility of the leaders of the church to use their spiritual gifts to get the bride ready to meet the Bridegroom.

(We spent three weeks talking about growing in Intimacy with Jesus, and we spent three weeks talking about growing in unity. Today we will begin to focus some on Maturity.) Maturity…to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

Maturity is having the character and the conduct of Christ. Today I want to talk about how we can grow in the character of Christ, and next week we will talk about how to grow in the conduct of Christ.

In the four gospel accounts given to us in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—89 chapters of biblical text—there is only one place where Jesus tells us about His own heart.

When the Bible speaks of the heart, it is speaking of the central animating center of all we do. It is our motivation headquarters. The heart, in biblical terms, is not part of who we are but the center of who we are.

That is why Solomon tells us to “keep the heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life.” (Prov 4:23) The heart drives all we do. It is who we are. And when Jesus tells us what animates Him most deeply, what is most true of Him—what we find there is: gentle and lowly. An even better translation is Meek and Humble.

The Greek word translated “meek” here occurs just three other times in the NT: in the first beatitude, that “the meek” will inherit the earth (Matt 5:5); in the prophecy in Matt 21:5 (quoting Zech 9:9) that Jesus the king “is coming to you meek and mounted on a donkey”; and in Peter’s encouragement to wives to nurture more than anything else “the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a meek and quiet spirit” (1 Pet 3:4).

Meek. The posture most natural to Jesus is not a pointed finger but open arms.

The point in saying that Jesus is humble, or lowly, is that He is accessible. For all His resplendent glory and dazzling holiness, His supreme uniqueness and otherness, no one in human history has ever been more accessible and approachable than Jesus Christ.

The way that the world understands meekness is that it is weakness. It is a lack of courage. But that is not how the Bible or Jesus define that word. Jesus certainly wasn’t weak in courage. Meekness is strength under control.

He could have called on a legion of angels to free Himself from the cross, but He chose not to. He could have leveled The Romans and Religious leaders who taunted Him and ridiculed Him and spit on Him, but He chose not to. He was operating in Meekness. He was operating in strength under control.

But meekness is even more than that. And Jesus wants us to learn meekness from Him.And He invites us to come to Him and take on His yoke instead of our burdens.

Some think that coming to Jesus is a heavy thing. That surrender to His lead in your life is a hard thing. Coming into a deep fellowship with Jesus is not burdensome. His yoke is kind and His burden is light.

He wants us to learn from Him how to be meek and humble. Do you want to get some rest? Learn to be meek and humble. Pride is exhausting. Learn to be meek and humble and get some rest.

Let’s first consider how to become meek. The meek man does not demand anything for himself. He does not take all his rights as claims. He does not make demands for his position, his privileges, his possessions, his status.The man who is meek is not sensitive about himself. He is not always watching out for himself and his own interests. He is not always on the defensive. He no longer worries about what others think about him and say about him. The man who is truly meek never pities himself. He is never sorry for himself. To be meek, in other words, means that you have finished with yourself altogether.

It is meekness that enables one to be free from a spirit of retaliation. It means that we shall be patient and long-suffering, even when we suffer unjustly. That is what Jesus modeled for us.1Pet 2:23 And while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;

To be meek means that we leave everything—ourselves, our rights, our cause, our whole future—in the hands of God. Meekness is rooted in the deep confidence that God is for you and not against you.That is how Jesus was. And that is what He wants us to learn from Him.

There are some others who learned well what Jesus wants to teach us.

The Meekness of Moses

What happens in the following verses is that the Lord rebukes Miriam and Aaron and vindicates His servant Moses. Now, what is the point of calling Moses meek right here in this context — right between bitter opposition and God’s vindication? I think the point is that meekness means committing your cause to God and not needing to defend yourself. Meekness Refrains from Defensiveness and Revenge. The meek leave their vindication with God. Meekness is the power to absorb adversity and criticism without lashing back.

John the Baptist also learned meekness and humility.

John knew that he was not the light, he had just come to point to the light.John was humble. He knew that it wasn’t all about him. His focus was not himself.

Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less. In fact, it is not thinking about yourself at all.

Jesus said that there has been none born up to that point in history greater than John the Baptist.

What made John so great was his humility. He knew that it wasn’t about him, it was all about Jesus. He knew that he wasn’t the light, he was simply pointing to the light. When they asked John who he was, he never even told them his name. He just said, “I’m just a voice pointing to Him.” The point being, it doesn’t even matter who I am, it is not about me.

And Jesus is the ultimate example of not thinking about Himself. He left the glory of heaven and humbled himself to become a man, and then selflessly give Himself over to the most humiliating death possible all for us.

Humility is the mark of greatness. God gives grace to the humble. James 4:6 God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Jesus was full of grace and truth.

Grace is God’s empowering presence enabling us to do what God has called us to do. God gives His grace to the humble. God gives His empowering enabling presence to the humble.

Let’s see what meekness looks like in John’s life.

The meek have nothing to gain, nothing to lose, and nothing to prove. John knew that whatever he had, God gave him. Whatever he was, God made him to be. He didn’t have to jockey for position. Whatever position God wanted him to have, he would have it. He didn’t have to manipulate and control. God would be the one in control.

Meekness begins when we put our trust in God. Then, because we trust Him, we commit our way to Him. We roll onto him our anxieties, or frustrations, our plans, our relationships, our jobs, our health. And then we wait patiently for the Lord. We trust His timing and His power and His grace to work things out in the best way for His glory and for our good.

And, as Jesus said, the meek shall inherit the earth. There is great reward for meekness and humility. And all the reward is not for later. For Jesus said that if we learn meekness and humility, we shall find rest for our souls.

Pride is exhausting. Fear is exhausting. So, humble yourself and get some rest.

So, how are you doing in Christian maturity? Christian maturity is becoming more like Jesus.

And you are never more like Jesus than when you are meek and humble.