Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

[!NOTE] Primary Scripture Reading: Matthew 5:1-12

I. Background of the Sermon on the Mount

A. In the 2nd year of Jesus ministry, during the zenith of His popularity, Jesus preached a message that is His best known but probably least understood and applied discourse.

B. It was a message so radical and distinct from the common wisdom of a world of philosophers from the Jews and Greeks.

1. L. Whiteside said, “Its contents, so superior to any production of man, proved the Deity of its author. Its teaching is out of harmony with any school of religion or philosophy of that day; hence, their brightest lights could not have produced it. Its teaching is distinct, revolutionary, challenging every school of religious thought of the times, both Jewish and heathen. It is not a product of the times, but of Deity. ”
2. It should be no surprise that modern philosophers have either admired the Sermon on the Mount but rejected it as impractical and unrealistic.
3. Theological liberals have either rejected it, explained it away, gutted it of the radical transformational message, or hijacked it to be a message of social reform.

C. The Sermon on the Mount is a message of transformation and the introductory section, commonly called “The Beatitudes” expresses the nature of the kingdom of heaven established on earth (the church) and its Christian citizens in sharp contrast to this defiled world.

1. Those who are blessed, or happy, obtain this favor and state of existence in ways that the world does not and cannot understand.
2. It is a blessedness that cannot be bought, earned, or obtained through advancement in wealth, power, fame, or any earthly path.
3. The Sermon on the Mount declares of the Kingdom and the Christian in a subtle way what Jesus explicitly said to Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world” and it is obvious that the true Christian is not of this world.
4. Since Jesus chose these characteristics to express the nature of His followers, we must make sure that we know them, how to obtain and grow these characteristics, and anything that would destroy or weaken them in our lives.
5. Today we will study “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

D. Poor

1. The poverty described here does not convey the American idea of someone who doesn’t have as much as the average person, but one who has nothing at all; abject poverty.
2. Paul Earnhart said it “refers not simply to those for whom life is a struggle, but to men who are reduced to the most abject begging because they have absolutely nothing.”
3. We are reminded of Lazarus, in Jesus parable, who was laid at the gate of the rich man begging for a morsel of bread as dogs lick his sores—he had nothing.

E. Poor in spirit

1. However, Jesus does not pronounce a blessing on physical poverty but poverty of Spirit.
2. Paul Earnhart again, “Here it is applied to the sinful emptiness of an absolute spiritual bankruptcy in which a person is compelled to plead for that which he is powerless to obtain and to which he has no right, but without which he cannot live.”
3. Martyn Lloyd-Jones defined poor in spirit as “a complete absence of pride, a complete absence of self-assurance and self-reliance. It means a consciousness that we are nothing in the presence of God.” He further described it as “this tremendous awareness of our utter nothingness as we come face to face with God.” (Caudill)

F. The Christian who is poor in spirit realizes that he is nothing without God and has nothing except what God has given him leaving him no reason to be prideful or boastful.

II. God’s people can lack this poverty of Spirit

A. God’s people can be full of themselves because of their possessions—not just “the rich”

1. Warning to Israel, Deuteronomy 8:11-14
2. Revelation 3:14-17 – Laodicean church

B. God’s people can be full of themselves or have a false pride in their holiness

1. Matthew 23:1-7; 23-24; 27-28 – The Pharisees were proud hypocrites
2. They took pride in their spiritual reputation and accomplishments.
3. They were the spiritual equivalent of the materialistic “self-made man”

C. God’s people can perceive that they are spiritual superior to others

1. Luke 18:9-14 – Trusted they were righteous and viewed others with contempt
   • Pride in his spiritual accomplishments
   • Pride in what he has to offer God and fails to see what he desperately needs from God
2. Luke 7:36-50 – Simon and the sinful woman
   • Pride leads to condescending judgment and little love for God because they don’t perceive that God really had to do a lot for them.
   • Simon entertained Jesus as a respected equal and would not offer simple service to Him as a guest in his home
   • The sinful woman, bankrupt in her spirit with nothing to offer but her sinful self, tears for her shameful broken heart, and washing His dirty feet with her own hair, knew that she had nothing and Jesus had everything.
   • The sinful woman, like the tax collector praying in the synagogue, knew that they had nothing worth bringing to God and came begging for His favor—the very personification of poor in spirit.

D. It makes sense that we cannot be full of God if we are full of ourselves.

E. Do you see yourself in any of these attitudes?

1. Are you lifted up in your heart because you aren’t wallowing in the filthy mire of immorality and foolish sins?
2. Do you focus on certain particulars that you think are important to God but neglect other commands and Christian characteristics?
3. Do you have pride because you are known among brethren are held in esteem with people you perceive as godly?
4. Do you feel secure and settled because you have a job, insurance for your health and for when you die, food in the pantry and the refrigerator/freezer?
5. When you compare yourself to others do you take pride that you are not like some of the foolish, wicked, and lazy people in this world?
6. Do you take pride that you are a good person who pays your way, does the right thing, and is a model citizen?
7. Do you take pride that you come to church, avoid immoral behavior, teach Bible classes, preach, lead singing, give liberally, go to meetings, etc.?
8. As Gary Henry wrote, “…the first requirement for spiritual growth is recognizing our NEED for spiritual growth. It’s not our ignorance that holds us back; it’s the false confidence that we’re farther down the road than we really are. If we see the need for growth at all, we don’t see it as urgent. And so we don’t work on it.”

III. Developing poverty of spirit

A. We must dispose of the possessions that fill our spirit

1. The rich young ruler was told to sell all that he had in order to follow Jesus but he went away sorrowful for he had many possessions.
2. We must empty the house of our spirit, taking prideful things to the curb in order to be filled with God.

B. We must empty ourselves of selfish pride

1. The apostles had this attitude, 1 Corinthians 4:8-13
2. Must lose our grip on this world, John 12:25
   • In the first century it required extreme sacrifice: living as outcasts in the world, plundered of possessions, wandering as exiles in their homeland, living as animals in the wilderness, imprisonment, and a martyrs death.
   • If our happiness or sense of self-worth is built on our name in the community, our address, wealth, any power we wield, reputation among men, or any other worldly criteria, we need to realize that we are truly nothing.
   • Paul considered every earthly merit, even those based in spiritual heritage, as rubbish, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8)
   • Are you willing to let go of every earthly thing upon which you have attached your identity and be satisfied only with your association with God?
3. We must accept that the world with think us foolish, 1 Corinthians 1:20-30
4. We must not look down on others as the Pharisee or Simon
   • We must not look on our life and take pride in all that we have built and how good we are because of what we have done. We must realize how helpless we are and that our achievements are illusions.
5. We must realize that we have nothing of which we can boast of ourselves
   • Paul’s attitude: 1 Corinthians 15:9-10 (by the grace of God, I am…)
   • We are unprofitable servants, Luke 17:7-10

C. When we have emptied ourselves, God can make us fit to inherit the kingdom

1. Isaiah 57:15; 66:2
2. Luke 5:8-10 – Jesus could use Peter who could see his own sinfulness
3. 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 – we are not satisfied with our knowledge of God but want the knowledge of God and His will to fill us
4. Spiritually naked and destitute, stripped of our illusions, self-satisfaction, pride, and exaltation over our fellow man, we come as beggars to the door of God, falling on our face before His glorious presence, recognizing that we are unworthy to be called His children, and receive joyous entry into the warmth of His presence, clothed with His righteousness, and abundant spiritual blessings from His hand.
5. Then, like Jesus, we can say, “I am no more of this world.”