Trinity Community Church

The Blessed Life - Session 6

Hannah Silverberg

What does it truly mean to be merciful? In this powerful session on the fifth Beatitude—“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”—Hannah Silverberg leads us into a deeper understanding of how this seemingly simple statement holds profound implications for our spiritual lives and relationships.

She begins by addressing a common misunderstanding: the belief that we earn God’s mercy by showing mercy to others. Quoting Charles Spurgeon, she clarifies that the Beatitudes aren’t a list of salvation requirements but a description of the heart of someone already transformed by grace. Our ability to show mercy doesn’t qualify us for mercy—it flows from having already received it.

From there, the session unfolds around three vital truths about biblical mercy. First, mercy costs. It goes far beyond mere sympathy; it acknowledges real wrong and pain and chooses to bear the cost instead of demanding payback. Jesus modeled this perfectly—He taught about mercy knowing it would cost Him the cross. Likewise, our mercy may cost us emotionally, relationally, or materially. But it never compromises God’s holiness. As Hannah notes, “To be passive to sin that will send people to hell is not godly mercy—it’s fear of man. And to be passionate against sin and not brokenhearted for the sinner is not godly justice—it’s pride.”

Second, mercy heals. It doesn’t just bring peace to the person we forgive—it also brings freedom to our own hearts. When we release bitterness, we open space for God’s healing to take root. Through powerful real-life examples—including courtroom moments where families forgive the very people who took their loved ones—Hannah shows how mercy can break cycles of pain and set both the wounded and the wrongdoer on a path to healing.

Finally, mercy transforms. Looking at the life of Peter—from his proud declaration of loyalty to his devastating denial and ultimate restoration by Jesus—we see how mercy didn’t just forgive him, it changed him. Christ’s mercy took a broken, fearful man and transformed him into a bold apostle willing to die for the gospel. “The mercy of Christ transformed Peter,” Hannah reminds us, “and the mercy of Christ transforms us.”

This session concludes with the encouraging truth that we can never out-give God’s mercy. Every act of mercy we offer is rooted in what we’ve already received, and as we pour it out, God is faithful to fill us again.

Are you ready to experience mercy as more than a concept—as a powerful force that heals, restores, and reshapes your life? Come explore how receiving and giving mercy can deepen your walk with Christ and transform the way you respond to a broken world.

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Tyler Lynde:

How many of you would say that you are characterized by being a merciful person? Come on now. Am I in the right room? Okay, let me ask it like this how many of you would like to be characterized as being a merciful person? Okay, very good, very good. Well, we're going to learn some more about that tonight and I'm going to make a special introduction.

Tyler Lynde:

Tonight, we have a special guest that's going to be speaking to us and that is this young lady right here. Come on down. So, those of you who don't know her, this is my daughter, hannah Silverberg, and Amy's daughter, our daughter, yeah, and I feel like the father with Jesus tonight. This is my daughter, in whom I'm well pleased, and I mean that and so really excited about what she's going to share with us tonight, and it's important, it's really important. So let's pray, we'll get started.

Tyler Lynde:

Thank you, father, for this time. Thank you, lord, that you gave this great sermon, and it's something that we can learn from and we also can practically apply the things that you have taught us in this sermon. So we ask that you'd help us tonight to have ears to hear, and not only to listen, but that we would be willing to obey Lord. It's the cry of all of our heart tonight for us to become merciful people, and so we ask that you'd open our eyes and our hearts to that very truth. Help Hannah as she communicates these things to us In Jesus' name, amen. Amen name.

Hannah Silverberg:

Amen, all right. Well, hey everybody, how's it going? I'm going to go ahead and start out. I'm going to read the whole passage, matthew 5, 1 through 12. We'll just kind of get the context and then we'll get into things. Okay?

Hannah Silverberg:

So, seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain and when he sat down, his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you, falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Hannah Silverberg:

So we've been planning this teaching, this Bible study for a few six months now for the church, and I had a feeling my dad was going to ask me to teach one of these sessions, mainly because every time we talked about it he said you're going to teach one of these sessions and so and I was always like, well, that's so far away, we'll deal with that then. So when I saw his name pop up on my phone with the do you want to teach on Blessed or the Merciful, I wasn't too surprised. But I was surprised at my reaction because my hesitation wasn't to teaching but specifically to teaching this topic. And I was surprised by that because, honestly, after reading that list, blessed or the Merciful feels kind of easy right, compared to some of the other ones. We're talking about persecution and all of those things. But the thing that made me hesitant about this one is, it felt, a bit ominous Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Well, what if I'm not merciful? Right, what does that mean? And really my hesitation with that is it kind of sounded to me at first hearing like I thought of the mercy of salvation. It's like, well, if I'm not merciful, is the Lord going to be merciful to me, and so I was really. I was like, okay, if I'm hesitant about this, that means I need to dig into my theology about it and figure out what I think and why I'm hesitating.

Hannah Silverberg:

So I dug into studying and I found this quote by Charles Spurgeon, and it's just so good and I tried to take a little snippet out of it. But it's just Charles Spurgeon, you know what I mean, and so it's a little bit of a long quote. And I know I just started talking and I just read a long passage of scripture and I'm going to read a semi long quote, but I need you to lock in, okay, because we're theologians tonight and we're going to leave feeling so smart, studying drill surgeon, you ready, all right? You remember that at the commencement of our homilies upon this sermon on the Mount, we noticed that our Lord's subject was not how we are to be saved, but who are saved. He is not here describing the way of salvation at all that he does in many other places but he here gives up the signs and evidences of the work of grace in the soul, so that we should greatly err, if we should, that we must be merciful in order to obtain mercy, any such legal notion, which would be clean, contrary to the entire current of Scripture and directly opposed to the fundamental doctrine of justification by faith in Christ. I ask you to notice that these persons are blessed already and have obtained mercy already. Long before they became merciful, god was merciful to them, and before the full promise was given them, as in our text, that they should obtain yet further mercy, they had already obtained the great mercy of a renewed heart which had made them merciful. That is clear from the connection of the text.

Hannah Silverberg:

Isn't that so good? That just really puts to rest that idea, this wrestling of am I trying to earn the Lord's favor? Am I trying to earn his mercy toward me by my own actions? Because that is the longing inside of all of us. We want to control our own salvation. Because that is the longing inside of all of us. We want to control our own salvation right, which we want to fight against the hand of mercy of the Lord in our lives in order to gain control of it. And so we're just going to reject that idea of okay, I'm trying to fight and prove to the Lord that I deserve something from him, and instead I'm acknowledging that anything I can do that is worth doing is because of the God who did it all for me. Praise God, which means also, there is more mercy that we can obtain by being merciful. This is a bonus mercy, right, and so this is even better, it's even more fun. So we've heard all of these. Y'all heard all of these teachings. I listened to some of them on the podcast and they were great, but it's really leading up.

Hannah Silverberg:

The Beatitudes are this journey right? This is the way of the redeemed, this is the way of Christ, and so we're. They all build on one another. They're not apart from anything. So throughout this journey, it's really been the emptying of oneself we're setting. We're being poor in spirit, recognizing our need, mourning our sin and being comforted, being meek and kingdom focused, and then being desperate for righteousness. All of things. Things kind of build on each other in our chain of sanctification. We start out our journey by emptying ourselves, acknowledging and being grieved by our own sin, and then, from that place, we can turn to the Lord to seek righteousness, desiring to be pleasing in his sight, and so then we're hungering and we're thirsting for righteousness. We're seeking righteousness, and then the first thing he tells us to do is to open our heart and hands and be merciful to one another. This is really the first step, where we turn from inward to outward, where other people are a part of this journey that we're on with the Lord, because we're not meant to be sanctified alone.

Hannah Silverberg:

So the Greek word for merciful is elemones. I'll try, that's the best I can do. And it's also used in Hebrews 2 17 to highlight the gospel. Therefore, he had to be made. This is referring to Jesus. Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. So this leads to our first point about mercy. Mercy costs. When Jesus stood up and he taught this sermon, he already knew that for him, mercy meant the cross, and he chose to teach it anyway.

Hannah Silverberg:

We have softened mercy in our minds and tried to make it on par with compassion or sympathy. It's easier to excuse ourselves from this calling that way because we can say well, I'm just more of a straightforward person, a straight shooter or empathy isn't in my top five strengths, so it's just not who God made me to be. Well, yes, it is, and he's calling us all to it. If we decide that mercy is something that we are naturally inclined to, based on personality, then this walk of sanctification is going to be way easier for some of us, and some of us are completely excused for it from it. All of us have things that are going to be easier and harder for us in the walk of Christ, based on who he's made us to be, because we're all made differently, in the image of God, to reflect his character, and so, yes, maybe your nature naturally reflects mercy easier than other things, but that doesn't mean that it's not something that needs to be refined and balanced by the Holy Spirit in your daily walk.

Hannah Silverberg:

My daughter has been watching the VeggieTales Jonah movie recently. Has anyone seen the Jonah movie? Yes, of course, a classic, and it's got a lot about compassion and mercy in it. And Pirate Paw Grape defines mercy as giving someone a second chance, even when they don't deserve it. This is the cost of mercy. It's not mercy, if they didn't do something, if someone hasn't done something to you, to require you to hand it back to them. Right, and for those of us that are justice, oriented mercy feels like a tough pill to swallow. Sometimes. Oriented mercy feels like a tough pill to swallow sometimes because it can feel like we are allowing people off of the hook instead of receiving instead of them receiving what they or what we think we deserve.

Hannah Silverberg:

Holiness is not the enemy of mercy. Legalism is To be merciful, is to acknowledge the wrong, to count the cost and then to decide to take the hit ourselves instead of handing it to the person who offended us. This is the gospel. We are the ones who have sinned against a holy God and that God himself, in his loving kindness, counted the cost and took the hit anyway. Justice paid for with mercy. Psalm 85, 10, says mercy and truth are met together and righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Hannah Silverberg:

Perhaps we fall on the other side of mercy and justice and shy away from justice as a whole, thinking it kind of cruel and unkind. Now I have two daughters and if one of them decides that her favorite pastime is going to be taking her sister's toys Could go either way right now. Honestly, they decide, okay, I'm going to take my sister's toys all the time. And I decide, okay, I want to be a merciful mother. So I am not going to correct, to discipline my child because I want to be kind to her, so I'm not going to step in in any way. What's the problem with that? This is it you can answer for real? Oh, the other child, right? Or what about the child at the playground? Or what about anybody else? You know, we can't raise people with this expectation of I can just snatch whatever I want, right?

Hannah Silverberg:

Cs Lewis said that mercy detached from justice grows unmerciful. If we completely separate this idea of mercy from justice, then we end up in the same place. Now I'm the one who is injuring my other child because I am not walking in my responsibility to correct. But if I then go and discipline my child, who is wrong? If the heart of impatience and annoyance, then I'm not walking in mercy either. Right, it's all about this. Balance is in between. We can't fall on just one side or just the other. All of the Christian walk is learning to walk in the rhythms of grace, allowing the Lord to inform our steps instead of just following a list of rules. We cannot use God's call to mercy as a reason to turn the other way in situations where we should speak up. So to summarize it to be passive, to sin that will send people to hell is not godly mercy, it is fear of man. And to be passionate against sin and not brokenhearted for the sinner is not godly justice, it is pride. Micah 6.8 says he has shown you, o mortal, what is good and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Hannah Silverberg:

Our second point tonight is mercy heals. When we go through painful things in life, when we are betrayed or wronged or wounded, our natural inclinations tell us to either batten down the hatches and hunker down, or to lash back out at the person who has wounded us. We can see lots of examples in scripture of this. Can you all think of any? Nope, okay.

Hannah Silverberg:

So uh, when I thought of was the woman in John eight who is caught in adultery and Jesus turns her. She's ripped out of bed, she's brought in front of all of these men. They want to stone her and Jesus turns her accusers away by instructing those without sin to throw the first stone, sending her away with mercy to go and sin no more. He didn't allow her to continue in the sin that she was in. He corrected her for her wrong, but he also didn't allow her, he didn't just judge her without mercy. He gave her the grace of a second chance to make the right choice, to turn away from the wrong. Another example I thought of was the woman who poured perfume on Jesus' feet and wiped them with her hair. She was forgiven much and so she loved much.

Hannah Silverberg:

To be merciful in the face of our pain allows the Lord to be our healer. When we lay down our right to shake our fists in what we have deemed to be righteous anger, we can open our hands to be met with grace and we obtain mercy. Part of the healing of mercy and part of obtaining mercy when we give it. When we forgive others, we can let go of that poison that lives within our hearts, and the Lord's mercy to us is healing in that right.

Hannah Silverberg:

Have you all seen those videos? In the courtroom? There's like two different sides. You can see where someone is found guilty of a crime and the family speaks to the offender who killed their family member, whatever it may be, and they can speak. Some of them say, like you deserve to rot in jail, you know, and they really come after them and because they're wounded and they're hurt, this person did the wrong thing against them and they want justice to be served in that way. But have you also seen the videos of family members who have been wronged, who have had these horrible things happen as a result of someone else's sin? Then look at them and say what you did was wrong, but I'm a Christian and God told me to forgive you.

Hannah Silverberg:

And the difference not just in that courtroom, not for the criminal, but for the person saying those words when we can hand things over to the Lord, we're not only allowing the Lord's mercy to be exemplified in our mercy towards other people and them being healed, but we're also opening up our own hearts for the Lord to heal us. That's part of the mercy that we can obtain when we are merciful. And sometimes the thing that keeps us from showing mercy isn't just if we're really honest. It's not just the hurt that's done to us from other people or from circumstances, but it's anger at the Lord for allowing it to happen. Sometimes our fight against mercy is really our fight against the God, who we think wasn't merciful, but we can know the truth of his character and the truth of his word and we can rely on him and trust that. Okay, lord, I don't understand this, but I am going to open my hands anyway and I am going to trust that you will reveal yourself to me.

Hannah Silverberg:

The lie of the enemy is that we just need to get to a place of neutrality. Right, if I can just get to a place where I don't care about this so much anymore, where he doesn't get me all fired up anymore, then I'm good and God's good with me, because I'm not angry at them anymore. But the truth is that neutrality is a lie and to not be merciful is to be merciless. We can either walk in abundant mercy, knowing that we are bookended by the grace given to us by the Lord, or we can withhold from those around us, poisoning ourselves and withholding mercy from ourselves when we choose I'm not going to give mercy to that person because I think they deserve justice then we are the ones who are stopping up the flow of mercy from the Lord to ourselves. Holding on to our own wounds can poison us. Where mercy heals, mercy transforms.

Hannah Silverberg:

When I was studying this, I kept being drawn to the story of Peter, especially at the Last Supper and throughout the story of the crucifixion. And Peter is so confident at the Last Supper and he's saying I will never turn away from you. Lord, like, let's go get him. And even in the garden he pulls out a sword and he comes, he's, he's guns ablaze and he is ready to go. But Peter. But Jesus told Peter right. And he said you're going to deny me three times before the rooster crows. And so I think that's partially why Peter's so ready to go. He's got something to prove out here tonight, right? And then things don't go the way that he thought that they would. You know, jesus says no, that's not how we're doing things. Jesus shows mercy to the Roman soldier coming to crucify him, coming to take him away, and he heals him anyway. And so then they go.

Hannah Silverberg:

In Luke 22, 61 says the Lord turned and looked at Peter after Peter had denied him for the third time. So they go, and Peter is kind of hanging back. He doesn't want to be associated with Jesus because he doesn't know how this is going to go. They're really outnumbered and Jesus isn't letting him fight and his strength is in his own fist, so he doesn't want anything to do with it, right? And so he's standing out there.

Hannah Silverberg:

Do you know this man? No, I don't. Do you know this man? No, I don't. Do you know this man? No, I don't. And the rooster crowed and it says that, peter, can you imagine this is the worst moment in human history. This is leading up to this right, the crucifixion of Jesus. This is one of his very closest friends. Can you imagine being Peter and looking in the eye of the person you love the most, who has loved you the most, who knows you deeper than anyone else? And you just denied them in that moment than anyone else, and you just denied them in that moment and Peter went out and wept bitterly. I can't imagine that shame and self-disgust and hatred after that moment that Peter must have felt.

Hannah Silverberg:

And then three days of silence and grief and knowing that you, that he wasn't there. John was the only one and the Marys were there at the cross and none of the other disciples were there. And then in John's gospel, you know, the women come back and they say, hey, the tomb is empty, the savior is risen and Peter and John take off in a foot race to the tomb and it says that John won the race, which is a hilarious fact to put in the Bible. Can you believe that? The Lord let John put that in there? But I wonder, I wonder if Peter held back that day on his run to the cross, was he afraid to see the God he had forsaken and betrayed, the God that he boasted so proudly to? I will never turn away from you, I'll be the one there with you. And then, that night, turned away. And he knows that. Jesus knows it too, because Jesus looked at him. And we've all felt that way on some level, haven't we? We have all known when we have wronged the Lord and instead of running to him, we slow our steps in our shame.

Hannah Silverberg:

But a little while later, the disciples went fishing and Jesus appeared on the beach and he told them one more time to cast the net on the other side of the boat. And Peter recognized Jesus and jumped into the water one more time to get to Jesus, always exuberant Peter, anxious for Jesus, with his fear in the way, and the verses say so. When they had eaten breakfast, jesus said to Simon Peter Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? And he said to them yes, lord, you know that I love you. He said to him feed my lambs. He said to him again a second time Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? He said to him yes, lord, you know that I love you.

Hannah Silverberg:

And maybe Peter was grieved because he wanted the Lord to believe him. He was upset that Jesus kept asking, as if he wasn't giving him the right answer. And maybe Peter was grieved because he remembered it the last time. He'd been asked a question three times and he gave the wrong answer that time. And so he said to him Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. And Jesus said to him feed my sheep. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger you girded yourself and walked where you wished, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish. And this he spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him follow me.

Hannah Silverberg:

Jesus' mercy to Peter wasn't excusing him, but it was meeting him in his pain and healing him in that mercy. That connection point Jesus so easily and righteously could have said get behind me, satan. Once more to Peter he could have said you betrayed me, you did not stand the test, you did not walk in the light, I want nothing to do with you as a follower. And instead he said follow me and I have a job for you, and one day for you. And one day Peter given another chance, a bigger chance, and one day he was not the man who turned away and denied relationship with the Savior who was led to the cross, but he was the man led to the cross because of his relationship with Jesus, because he would not deny it, and he was crucified upside down because he deemed himself unworthy to die the way his Savior did.

Hannah Silverberg:

The mercy of Christ transformed Peter, and the mercy of Christ transforms us, who we were before unmerciful, harsh, self-centered, unmerciful, harsh, self-centered slaves to sin. We have been called to a higher standard and we have been given the ability to be transformed by the mercy of the gospel. And our last point tonight is that mercy triumphs. We will never be more merciful than the Lord will be. You can never be more merciful to someone else who is asking something of you that you do not want to give. Your mercy to them will never be greater than the Lord's mercy to you, because it's his mercy that you're spending anyway. You couldn't come up with it on your own strength if you tried, and just like we see in the parable of the talents. We who are faithful with little will be given more to be faithful with. Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy.

Hannah Silverberg:

And let's pray, lord.

Hannah Silverberg:

We just thank you that you are the merciful King who has chosen to bestow your mercy on each and every one of us. And, lord, we ask your forgiveness for the times that each and every one of us have shied away from offering mercy to one another, when we would have held our own sense of justice and righteousness to be dearer and more important than your call to pick up our cross every day and to walk in the way of the faithful. Lord, I just ask that you would do what your word promised. We know you will. Lord, we ask that you would bestow mercy upon us, that you would open our eyes to the ways that we are withholding and that you would enable us, with the ability to be merciful to those around us, to live with open hands and open hearts, and with mercy that dwells in our hearts and our minds as much as it does in our mouths and hands. Lord, we thank you that you are faithful and just to do what you have promised To you. The only right. God be the glory, amen.

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