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Matthew 5 v 3: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.’ (Read Isaiah 57 v 14 – 15)
BRIEF REVIEW
We said in our Introduction to the Beatitudes last week that the Beatitudes describe the characteristics of those who truly know Christ; they are a description of a depth of happiness which only comes through knowing Christ, and they also describe a foretaste of heaven – they give us a feel for what life will be like when sin is removed and the Kingdom of Heaven comes in all its fullness.
Perhaps the key to understanding the Beatitudes comes in Matthew verse 20 when Jesus says: ‘For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.’
The Pharisees and teachers of the law were the very religious people of that time. On the outside they kept themselves ceremonially clean, they obeyed religious rules and regulations, they said their prayers, they fasted, and they went to the church of that day.
But the Sermon on the Mount is not about what we are like on the outside. To some extent we can disguise what we are like on the outside – Jesus came to challenge us with what we are truly like on the inside.
This first section of the Sermon on the Mount is called the Beatitudes. The word ‘beatitude’ comes from a basic word meaning ‘blessed’ or ‘happy’. We shall see that these beatitudes or blessings are not dependent on the outward circumstances of life. They are not so much concerned with what we do – but who we are. Someone has said that this is why they are called the BE ATTITUDES and not the DO-ATTITUDES.
They are not a prescription of what I must do in order to be right with God - they are a description of what I will be like when I am right with God. They are not about what I can do for God – they are about what God has done in me!
In these eight Beatitudes Jesus spells out what the real citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven are like! Here are eight characteristics which describe Jesus Christ and those who have truly found Jesus Christ. They all have an opposite characteristic which sadly is found and desired by so many in the world today.
Today we are going to look at the first one, found in Matthew 5 v 3: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.’ There are many commentators who believe that Jesus deliberately put these Beatitudes in this order. If this is so, we must ask ourselves why this one was put first. INTRODUCTION‘Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.’ Cassius Marcellus Clay (Muhammad Ali) was the greatest, so he said. “I float like a butterfly and I sting like a bee ... I am the greatest!” he told us over and over again. It was all an act. He was a showman, an entertainer. One thing he was not was poor in spirit! Not then, anyway. What does it mean to be poor in spirit? 1. It does not mean that you have to be financially poor to get into heaven You’ve probably heard the story of the very rich man who died. He was famous for his magnificent collection of art treasures, antiques and silver. He owned a very large house, 3 luxury cars, and a yacht. He had shares in numerous prosperous companies. At his funeral all the relatives turned up - well they do, don't they, especially when they think you've left them something! They were all wondering the same question. And eventually one of the relatives approached the vicar to see if he knew the answer. “’Ere, Vic, Vic,” he whispered. "How much did he leave then?" The Vicar smiled and looked at the man. Then he whispered in his ear: “EVERYTHING. HE LEFT EVERYTHING!” We are reminded at every funeral service that on the greatest journey of life we take nothing with us. 1 Timothy 6 v 7: ‘WE CAME INTO THE WORLD WITH NOTHING, AND WE LEAVE THE WORLD WITH NOTHING!’ Whatever we have, we leave it all behind for others to enjoy (or fight over!)
Now there are those who believe that just as we enter heaven with nothing, so also we must walk this earth with nothing. St Francis of Assisi was a very rich young man, but he believed that he had to become poor in order to become spiritual. Many monks and nuns have followed that tradition and taken vows of poverty. They would argue that Luke's translation of this beatitude (ch 6 v 20) is ‘Blessed are you who are poor.’
They would argue that Luke also records (4 v 18) that Jesus had been anointed to preach good news to the poor. To preach the good news to the poor they feel that they need to be identified with them. There are people in some churches who seem to believe that all ministers, missionaries and salaried church workers should be poor - and the amount such people put into the offering probably shows just how strong a belief that is! However, there does not appear to be much, if any, justification in scripture for enforced poverty.
- There are many verses of comfort for those who are poor and have few earthly comforts to ease their lot in life (read the book of Job)
- There are warnings about the dangers of riches (read the Parable of Dives and Lazarus in Luke 16)
- There is a whole section on the evil of loving money in 1 Timothy chapter 6.
- There is the command of Jesus to the rich young ruler (Luke 18) to sell all he had in order to inherit eternal life. Yet this was only asked of this one man because his riches were a stumbling-block to him.
- There is the word of Jesus that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 19 v 24)
But it is not money which is the root of all evil – it is the LOVE of money which is the root of all evil. It is HOW I GET MY MONEY (honestly or dishonestly), and HOW I USE MY MONEY (only for myself - or for the needs of others) which may be the problem in my Christian life. It is not HOW MUCH I'VE GOT that is the real issue.
If my happiness is dependent upon how much money I've got, and the getting and spending of money is my life's priority, then the resulting happiness is not the heavenly happiness to which the beatitudes refer. Slaving for money, and craving for more possessions is like an addictive drug which can never be satisfied – there is no happiness in that!
However, whilst ‘money can’t buy me love’ – or peace of mind, or a place in the Kingdom of Heaven – this is not what this first Beatitude means.
1. It does not mean that you have to be financially poor to get into heaven 2. It does not mean that you have to be poor in temperament to get into heaven
Some people seem to think that to be poor in spirit means that you have to be deliberately meek and self-effacing, to think yourself worthless, of no value.
Dr Martyn Lloyd- Jones describes how he once had to preach in a certain town. When he arrived at the railway station he was met by a man who immediately asked for his bag and virtually grabbed it off him. The man told him: “I am a deacon in the church where you are preaching tomorrow.” He then added: “You know, I am a mere nobody, a very unimportant man really. I do not count. I am not a great man in the church; I am just one of the men who carry the bag for the minister.” This man almost gloried in being humble. But when humility is taken to extremes it becomes a character defect, a kind of emotional illness – a bit like Charles Dicken’s character Uriah Heep. Others have a similar attitude. They feel they are rubbish. They genuinely feel they are worthless. They feel they are not as good as anybody else. They feel they’re not good enough to do anything. It is so sad that some people feel this way about themselves. The way they have been treated by others (especially in their childhood), and the way they have been made to feel about themselves by others (especially by bigheads and bullies), may well have contributed to their sad, self-effacing, inferiority complex.
BUT IT IS NOT GOD WHO MAKES US FEEL THIS WAY ABOUT OURSELVES! Far from it! God's love for us lifts us up. He knows us and loves us as we are. He values us higher than anything else. I am child of God. Christ went all the way to the cross of Calvary to forgive ME! That's how much He loves me and values me. We sometimes sing a chorus which says: ‘I’m special because God has loved me.’ In God’s eyes I am special!
Now the circumstances of life may bring me low from time to time. Most, if not all of us, go through phases of feeling low about ourselves, often when we are tired. But these low times are temporary (or should be) and they ought to bring us closer to God, not further from Him.
As I get closer to God and realise His love for me, my spirit is lifted, I feel His strength, I realise afresh His great love for me! I am a child of the KING! God is my FATHER, my ABBA, my DAD! That is the relationship of love that we can have with God.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS BEATITUDE SAYS: HAPPY are the poor in spirit. It does not say that the poor in spirit are SAD, that they go round with a face as long sin! We deny God's love for us and His value of us if we feel unloved and unvalued and unwanted.
Poverty of spirit is not to have a LOW opinion of yourself (that’s depression, or at best, an inferiority complex); poverty of spirit consists of having a RIGHT opinion of yourself.
What does it mean to be poor in spirit? 1. It does not mean that you have to be financially poor to get into heaven. 2. It does not mean that I have to be poor in temperament to get into heaven 3. It does mean that we have a right estimate of ourselves before God
In Isaiah 57 v 14 - 15 we see an eternal and holy God who brings comfort for the contrite, for the poor in spirit. To be contrite means to be remorseful for what we have done wrong, to be ashamed, sorry, to be penitent before God.
Build up, build up, prepare the road!Remove the obstacles out of the way of My people.For this is what the high and lofty One says – He who lives for ever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit,to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” God lives in those who are contrite and lowly in spirit – not with those who are full of themselves! The poor in spirit are those who realise that before God we have nothing. All our wealth, all our learning, all our power, all our good deeds, they count for nothing before a holy and eternal God who will judge for our sins. Left to ourselves we are all spiritually bankrupt. As John Stott says, before God ‘we are sinners, under the holy wrath of God, and deserve nothing but the judgement of God. We have nothing to offer, nothing to plead, nothing with which to buy the favour of heaven.’ To be poor in spirit means that we need to be able to mean the words of that great hymn ‘Rock of Ages’.
Nothing in my hand I bring,Simply to Thy cross I cling;Naked come to Thee for dress;Helpless, look to Thee for grace;Foul, I to the fountain fly;Wash me, Saviour, or I die.
It is to these that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs. The rich, and the powerful, and the beautiful, and the intelligent may inherit the earth, BUT THEIRS IS NOT NECESSARILY THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. Those who are full of themselves, and their own achievements and abilities are total strangers to the God of grace, humility, and forgiveness.
They may be rich in terms of the world’s wealth, and its status, and its praise. One thing they are not is poor in spirit. They do not realise before the holy and eternal God that they are poor, they have nothing!
Membership of God's kingdom is a free gift. The membership fee has been paid by Christ on the cross of Calvary. There He died bearing God's punishment for my sin. All I have to do is to accept that I am a sinner and desperately need the forgiveness of Christ.
All the money, and brains, and power in the world cannot buy us, or earn us, a place in the Kingdom of God. It is offered free to the poor in spirit, not the rich and powerful. I have to become like a little child to enter it. That takes a lot of humility. The church in Laodicea in Revelation 3 v 17 was a rich and prosperous church, yet Jesus condemned them with the words: "You say ' I am rich and well off, I have all I need.' But you do not know how miserable and pitiable you are! You are poor, naked and blind." They thought they had everything – but they had nothing. Whatever wealth, and property, and organisation the church may possess today, she IS nothing, and she HAS nothing, unless she is poor in spirit, unless all her wealth is in the riches of Christ and His great salvation for sinful mankind. For it is only the poor in spirit who inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is not for those who are full of THEMSELVES – it is for those who desperately know how much they need Jesus Christ. There is no place in the Kingdom of Heaven for those who think they can go through life with no need of God’s love, His forgiveness, His comfort, His strength, His peace and His eternal hope. BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT ... FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
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