Table Of Contents

1. Introduction
2. The Significance of Merciful Leaders
3. The Source of Merciful Leaders
4. The Substance of Merciful Leaders
5. Conclusion

Introduction

We are entering a new monthly focus on Merciful, and this focus will look specifically at the pillar of leadership—how leaders ought to be merciful. When Jesus spoke about the Beatitudes, He made it clear that the inward man is what matters most to God. He is more concerned with who we are than with what we do.

Our character matters more than our outward actions, and everything begins with the heart. That’s why being merciful is not an external gesture or a human emotion—it is divine, Christ-centred, and only flows from a heart transformed by the Gospel of the water and the Spirit. With Matthew 5:7 as our main text, today’s message focuses on the Beatitudes and how they shape God’s leaders from within. And from this passage, we will discover three key aspects of merciful leaders: their significance, their source, and their substance.

The Significance of Merciful Leaders

Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” (Matthew 5:7). This mercy is not the world’s charity or emotional pity. Human mercy often seeks reward, recognition, or a sense of self-righteousness. But the mercy Jesus describes is divine, flowing from compassion for the inner condition of lost souls—their blindness, bondage, misery, and spiritual death.

Christ Himself is our example. He healed, delivered, fed, and taught with perfect mercy, yet the very ones He showed mercy to nailed Him to the cross. Divine mercy does not guarantee appreciation; in fact, it often attracts rejection. But this is the mercy God expects from His leaders: compassion that sees beyond external behavior and into the desperate need of the human soul.

The Source of Merciful Leaders

This mercy does not come from human nature. It flows only from the new birth through the Gospel of the water and the Spirit. In the Beatitudes before verse 7, Jesus reveals the necessary inner transformation:

• Poor in spirit – recognizing our spiritual bankruptcy.

• Those who mourn – grieving over sin and turning to Christ.

• The meek – humbled by God’s work in us.

• Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness – finding righteousness only in Christ’s baptism, death, and resurrection.

Only after this divine work in our hearts can the fifth Beatitude—being merciful—truly operate. The mercy we show is the mercy we have first received through Christ’s redemptive work. God is the fountain. His Spirit supplies the compassion, the sympathy, the patience, and the endurance needed to love broken people who may resist or even oppose us.

The Substance of Merciful Leaders

What does this mercy look like? It is the mercy we ourselves experience daily. Even though we are saved, we still sin until we return to dust—so we continually need God’s compassion and forgiveness. Only those who have received mercy can show mercy to others. Every morning, we need God’s mercy; without it, we can never truly touch other people’s lives. As we give mercy, we receive mercy. It becomes a divine cycle. The more we extend mercy, the more we are filled with it—so don’t give up in showing mercy.

Merciful leaders endure insult, rejection, misunderstanding, and hostility while still reaching out to the lost. We witness their inner agony, deception, demonic bondage, and hopelessness—and we respond not with judgment, but with the same mercy Christ has shown us.This mercy drives us to serve Him, because presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice is our “reasonable service” in light of God’s great mercy.

Conclusion

Church, God is calling us to be leaders who reveal His heart—leaders who have truly been transformed by the Gospel of the water and the Spirit, and therefore extend divine mercy to those still trapped in darkness. As we enter this season of Yuletide, let us display merciful leadership that looks beyond outward appearances and reaches into the soul. Let us remember how much mercy we have received—and give that same mercy freely. May our lives testify that Christ lives in us, and may His mercy flow through us to bring many into His kingdom.