What does First B Jackson teach about meekness?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on meekness starts with recovering a word that has nearly lost its meaning. Both Pastor Mark and Pastor Carl have pointed out that modern synonyms for meekness, things like timid, docile, spiritless, or wimpish, describe something nobody wants to be. The biblical word is something entirely different. The working definition both pastors drew from Sinclair Ferguson is that meekness is the disposition that submits to the word of God in Scripture and to the hand of God in providence. That is not weakness or suppression. It is strength held under control, like enormous weight being consciously restrained.
The teaching also draws a careful line between meekness and humility. Humility is an inner quality about how you think of yourself. Meekness is about how you treat other people. They are related, but they are not the same thing. Moses is the Old Testament's clearest example: Numbers 12 calls him the meekest man on the face of the earth, and the moments when he broke from that, striking the rock in anger, were breaks in his character, not the character itself. Jesus is the other figure the teaching keeps returning to. Paul appeals to the Corinthians by the meekness and gentleness of Christ even while his opponents mocked him for being bold only at a distance.
Psalm 37 is the passage First B Jackson has spent the most time in on this subject. Its repeated command is simply: do not fret. Do not fret over the wicked, do not envy wrongdoers, refrain from anger. The psalm keeps coming back to the promise that the meek will inherit the land and that God will make vindication shine like the light. Pastor Mark acknowledged plainly that sitting with those future-tense promises requires trust rather than sight, especially for people who are in the right and being treated as if they are wrong. That is exactly where meekness lives.
Taught from Psalm 37:1-40 · Matthew 5:5 · Numbers 12:3 · 2 Corinthians 10:1 · James 1:21
The passage taught · 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
23 For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread.
24 When he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me.”
25 In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me.”
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- October 11, 2015 Blessed Are the Meek Pastor Carl preaches on biblical meekness, showing from Psalm 37 and the life of Moses that true meekness is not weakness but God's strength held under restraint.
- October 11, 2015 Power Under Restraint A sermon on biblical meekness from Psalm 37: not weakness or timidity, but power under restraint and trust that God will act, vindicate and repay.
Mentioned along the way
- January 2, 2022 Blessed Are You The pastor opens 2022 with Jesus's Beatitudes from Matthew 5, showing how the upside-down values of God's kingdom stand against everything the world calls strength or success.