Poor in Spirit
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
Tim Keller offers the following definition for what Jesus meant by being "poor in spirit": It means seeing that you are deeply in debt before God, and you have no ability to even begin to redeem yourself. God's free generosity to you, at infinite cost to him, was the only thing that saved you.
But many people today resist Jesus' teaching about our spiritual poverty. Keller writes: On the contrary, you believe that God owes you some things—he ought to answer your prayers and to bless you for the many good things you've done. Even though the Bible doesn't use the term, by inference we can say that you are "middle-class in spirit." You feel that you've earned a certain standing with God through your hard work. You also may believe that the success and the resources you have are primarily due to your own industry and energy.
Of course it is the greatest sermons ever preached. Known by scholars today as one of the, if not the, most extensively studied discourses of all time. So many articles and books have been written about the sermon on the mount, so much so that there are now numerous books written about the books written about the sermon on the mount.
So is there a way for us to view this sermon, especially in our day and age? The popular way for many today in modern evangelicalism, is heavily influenced by proponents of the social gospel, which sees the sermon on the mount as a kind of road map to social progress to the point if the people of this world would actually take the teaching serious and apply it to our time, we would see the kingdom of heaven actualized right here on earth and right now. This takes away form the biblical reality that the kingdom of heaven has been inaugurated already and we will see in the future its consumption. It began when Christ the king came into this world and will be consummated when He comes back to judge the living and the dead.
So how are we to see the application and context of the sermon on the mount for us today… it is the same as it was for them who got to witness first hand the greatest sermon ever preached. We are to see this proclamation to show the true nature of the kingdom of God. It will first show us how we are to become citizens of the kingdom of heaven and how those who are in the kingdom will live. It will drive us to the misery of our sin and depravity, to repent and turn to Christ and Christ alone, and see how we will be transformed into the likeness of Christ being made more and more like HIm.
The King has come and now he is handing out the true blessings of the kingdom… He is calling our to them to be blessed… its not simply happy. It is clearly a declaration that you who are blessed are those who especially favored by God and are now happy and or fortunate because of it. The King identifies these people and tells them that they are favored by God. Be blessed. I favor you. I am here to bless you. Who are these people?
One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them. “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
The grass withers the flower fades but the Word of our God stands forever.
Poor in Spirit
Rich in Grace
The first thing we will focus on today, is what it means for us to be poor in spirit. Second, we will uncover how, in the love and grace of God, we become rich in grace with life in the kingdom of Heaven.
Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world causes us to seek self sufficiency in life, it is the gospel of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit that will open our spirits to see our true dependance on Christ and the wonderful fruits of His grace given in the Kingdom of God.
I. Poor in Spirit
-Begging for life in the Spirit.
A. The beauty of this first beatitude is it sets the groundwork for all the upcoming showing that there was a real divine intent for the order of it. Its a kind of key to all that follows. It is not in random order, for it becomes more and more clear as we progress that there is indeed no entry into the kingdom of heaven without being poor in spirit. In other words, there is no one in the kingdom of God who is not poor in spirit.
B. The idea here carries the picture of something that is empty. If I already have a cup that is full how is it possible to fill it up with more. One of my professors in Bible college used to say to us… how are you supposed to learn anything, if you know everything already. So here there must be a kind of emptying before there can be a filling. When it comes to our spirits, all citizens of the kingdom of heaven are needy. We are all beggars.
C. This understanding of being poor in spirit sets up another important point. It clearly shows the error that anything thought in the sermon that these are things we can do on our own. This dispels the idea that the principles of the sermon can be carried out by the efforts and ingenuity of man. It stops the idea of many that the sermon needs to be preached and men need to apply it and the kingdom of God will come. But the understanding of being poor in spirit negates that idea.
D. That is the island you need to get to. You are in California. There is no boat no floatation device nothing… you gotta get there. Somehow. No way we are swimming there. We cannot do it on our own. We cannot in our own strength even collectively get there without help.
E. Another concept to address is the constant uprising of monastic monk movements that are seen throughout church history. Many, especially in Roman Catholic circles and some Anglican, and the new modern monastic monk movements of today cite this “Poor in spirit” to exemplify literal poverty. Vows of poverty. Also, in Luke he says blessed are you who are poor. But in the scriptures, poverty is not seen as a good thing. For there is no reason to think that a poor man is closer to the kingdom of heaven as a rich man. Many times we see in the scriptures that the rich man relys upon his or her riches, but we see that the poor man will also rely on riches in they way they behave and what they do. Solomon even shows the obsession with those who do not have trying to keep up with those that do. This is not a blessing.
F. Also, for those who take the vow of poverty is it because they are just done with the race for riches and they had given up and to not feel like a failure they take that vow to show that they did not fail, but they actually won? They take the vow in order for them to feel better about themselves for this vow keep them out of the category of loser and failure. I have met some of these… they are some of the most arrogant and judgmental people. They judge the rich because they hate the rich. Easy to feel better about themselves now. They have a virtue that they hold on to and are full of this position. They are not poor in spirit. But turning your backs on wealth and voluntarily and deliberately resigning yourself to poverty, giving away all possessions will not give you the keys to heaven no matter how poor you are. Rich and poor alike can only be saved by faith in Christ. Even the most poor can still not be poor in spirit. Christ blesses poverty in spirit.
G. Now being a begger in spirit is one of the most diametrically opposed ideologies to that of the kingdom of this world. Being in a place of need in any manner is not something that is admired by the world. One scholar even says that being poor in spirit is a concept that is despised by the world. Self reliance, self expression, self confidence, and self sufficiency. The spirit of man in the world is believe in yourself, do your own thing, follow your heart, choose you own destiny, make a name for yourself. Postmodernism and culture today has its building blocks by the ideals of Neietzche which show that anything which stems from weakness is an awful thing. Weakness is what killed God. Weakness is bad, we need the Ubermench or the supermen.
H. Oh I have on many occasions shown that this philosophy has permeated the masses even those in the church. Again, If I call you a bad person. If I call you an evil person, or even an immoral person. It will upset you… sure. But If I call you a loser or point out anything that shows that you are a loser, we gonna be fighting. Being a loser in our culture is worse than being a sinner. So this idea of being poor in Spirit must be cast out and expunged. If you are trying to sell something, trying to get a position, trying to get elected, or just trying to impress the girl… in all of these things we have to and must give the impression that you are a success. So in all of these things we work and work to give the impression that we are even more successful than we really are. Thats who we go to. The successful. Or those who give the impression that they are more successful than they really are.
I. Its even like this in the church… As a pastor I have had to deal with unqualified men who were elders and deacons in the church not because they are biblically qualified, but because they are successful, rich, popular, or progressive. For many churches and ministry institutions, being poor in spirit is not a characteristic valued. Hoping you all are seeing more and more how the world has influenced the church and continue to live in denial. The church today seeks friendship with the World. If it is true that you don’t make friends with salad, it is doublly true that you will not make friends by being poor in spirit. The World wants Saul, not David.
J. And the reason the world do not see themselves as poor in spirit, is because they do not know God. As Christian’s, citizens of the kingdom of heaven, when we were face to face with God the thing we saw abundantly clear is that we are poor in spirit. Lacking in every way possible. Down and crushed with true humility. Like Isaiah …
Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
Or Like Paul…
Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?
Paul also comes to Corinth to minister and he said…
I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit.
We hiring a guy that comes like this? Be honest. Being poor in spirit is not even a virtue valued by the church as it should be. And remember that this is a foundational virtue on which all other of the beatitudes and sermon on the mount rests. If we don’t have this, how can we have any of the others? To quote the great Martin Lloyd Jones, “If you are not poor in spirit you are not in the kingdom of God.”
K. Blessed are those who are so desperately poor in their spiritual skill, experience, ingenuity, resources, and efforts that they realize they must have help from outside sources. Poor in spirit, then, is the personal acknowledging or better yet admitting that we are bankrupt spiritually. It is being aware and again admitting that we are utterly sinful and without the moral requirements good enough to stand upright and worthy before God.
II. Rich in Grace
-Christians are rich in the grace by which we stand.
A. And again, being poor in spirit is consistency rejected by the world and the church. These beatitudes go against it all. Blessed is the man who is always right, who is strong, who is self-sufficient, who is smart, who rules it all, who is rich, who is popular.
B. Theologian David Wells writes, “Theology becomes therapy.… The biblical interest in righteousness is replaced by a search for happiness, holiness by wholeness, truth by feeling, ethics by feeling good about one’s self.… The past recedes. The Church recedes. The world recedes. All that remains is self.”
C. Dr. Kent Hugues writes, “Someday, if history is allowed to continue, a perceptive artist may sculpt a statue of twentieth-century man with his arms wrapped around himself in loving embrace, kissing his image in a mirror.”
D. Jesus makes it clear that they only way we will be approved by God or be blessed by God and see the beauty of the covenant smile of the living God is that we be poor in spirit.
Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and prayed, “Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?
E. But we by nature do not think this. This is the foundational nature of sin in the garden. I am awesome and all God is trying to do is hold me down and hold me back. Sin and the effects of sin continue to cause us to turn our backs on the poverty of spirit. Sin continues to cause us to be lost. Sin causes us to believe that we in ourselves have acceptable worth and value before God. There is something so good about me that God will in end accept me. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. No is righteous no not one. There is no one on earth who always does good and never sins.
F. And the wages of sin is death. The wrath of God will come upon the wicked and all who sin. It is punishment in the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Eternal darkness. Eternal fire. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Ok Shane there is nothing we can do… we are poor in spirit so we are just doomed then. Right? Wrong.
G. The good news is… for those of us who are poor in spirit. For those of us who are empty. God is more than eager to fill us up. To bring to us a blessing that is incomprehensible. To make us rich in His wonderful grace and mercy. To fill us with true strength and make us truly strong. His grace is sufficient for us because… Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.
H. Salvation is here for those of you poor in spirit. Richness in grace is here for those poor in spirit. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved… If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.
so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Rejoice today… rejoice you who are poor in spirit. The King has come. And yours is the kingdom of heaven.
