Poor in Spirit and Mourning
Beatitudes
The Poor in Spirit and Mourners
Matthew 5:3-4
Last week we discussed how the Beatitudes describe the character of the ideal disciple—that Jesus was revealing how He wanted His followers to be. Some have taught that they create a standard that none can attain. I believe that to be false. In fact, I have come to believe that this is a standard of character that a disciple of Christ must attain.
On the other hand, in order to attain to this standard, everyone needs help. We cannot do it alone. Martin Lloyd-Jones is quoted as saying:
No man can live the Sermon on the Mount in and of himself, and unaided…there is nothing that leads to the gospel and its grace as the Sermon on the Mount. (Carson, p.92)
Today we will be looking at the two negative Beatitudes, poor in spirit and mourning.
The Meaning of Poor in Spirit
- Poor—abject poverty. The word used here, ptochos, means “lives not by his own labor or industry, but on other men’s alms,” that is, having nothing at all. This is against another word for poor, petes, which means having only the barest minimum but nothing more. It is the difference between the homeless and someone who lives in a shack.
- Spirit—Intellect, emotions, and will. For the unregenerate the spirit is dead and incapable of relating to God. For the children of the second birth, their spirits have been made alive together with Christ and they do relate to God.
- Poor in spirit—deals with those people who recognize that they bring nothing to the relationship they now have with God—it all comes from Him.
How is our spiritual poverty played out?
First, in humility—if you wish to have a synonym for poor in spirit, this word best performs that role.
Second, unpretentiousness—not self important. People who are poor in spirit, see themselves as they really are.
Third, dependence
For Their’s is the Kingdom of Heaven
John Stott wrote this about the kingdom of heaven belonging to the poor in spirit:
The kingdom is given to the poor, not the rich; the feeble, not the mighty; to the little children humble enough to accept it, not to soldiers who boast that they can obtain it by their own prowess. In our Lord’s own day it was not the Pharisees who entered the kingdom, who thought they were rich, so rich in merit that they thanked God for their attainments; nor the Zealots who dreamed of establishing the kingdom by blood and sword; but publicans and prostitutes, the rejects of human society, who knew they were so poor they could offer nothing and achieve nothing. All they could do was to cry to God for mercy; and he heard their cry. (Stott, p. 40)
How Jesus Exemplifies Poverty of Spirit
Jesus was poor in spirit in the sense that of all people He was the most humble. It is His example that encourages us to consider others more important than ourselves. Here’s what Paul wrote to the Philippians:
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 2:5-8
John 17:7: Now they have come to know that everything You have given me is from You.
1 Cor. 8:9, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
Jesus came from the glory of heaven and humbled himself as a man,
Once He created world in all its complexity,
Later He cobbled together tables and chairs.
Once He bedecked the heavens with stars,
Later He gloried in their beauty as a man.
Once He set the planets on their paths,
Later He labored up the paths to Golgotha.
Once He had perfect communion with the Father in ineffable glory;
Later He died forsaken by all.
JESUS IS OUR SUPREME EXAMPLE OF POVERTY OF SPIRIT
Contrast this with the spirit of the Jewish leaders
Listen to how Jesus referred to them. [go through the Sermon on the Mount regarding piety] 6:1ff.
How to become poor in spirit
It is a joint effort—you and the Holy Spirit. [humble yourself, see 1 Peter 5:5-6; and it is God who is at work in you to work and to will for His good pleasure, Phil 2:1-5,12-13]
1) Learn about God and man—Study scripture. Have a theological basis for your understanding of your spiritual poverty. The motto of the poor in spirit is, “God is rich, I am poor.”
2) Pray—John MacArthur once said, “Beggars are always begging.”
3) Serve others—1 Peter 4:10-11. It was after the disciples were arguing who would be greatest in heaven when Jesus wrapped Himself in a towel and began washing their feet. Often you become something by doing it. Warren Wiersbe used to say, “Sew a thought, reap an action; sew an action, reap a habit; sew a habit, reap a character; sew a character, reap a destiny.”
Mourn
The meaning of mourning
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4
One pastor (Warren Wiersbe) used to say, “You can tell a man by what makes him laugh and what makes him cry.”
The word we translate mourn here is pentheo and it means to be grief-stricken. The question is, grief-stricken over what? The mourning spoken of in this verse refers to that characteristic of a disciple that causes him to grieve for sins and seek repentance.
It is this characteristic that facilitates the disciple to be an ideal disciple—because it provides for our failure. Without this beatitude we might consider the character traits as unachievable platitudes that are nice to consider but too difficult to attain, so why try.
Mourning also prevents a light hearted view of sin. It instead results in a contrite heart. I had a friend who felt that his Catholic faith was the superior because it permitted him to live as he pleases Monday through Saturday because he could confess his sins on Sunday and make it all right. In his faith there was no inkling of contrition.
As Stott says, “Confession is one thing, contrition is another…there are such things as Christian tears, and too few of us ever weep them.” (p. 41)
Listen to what David wrote in grief over his sin with Bathsheba:
O LORD, rebuke me not in Your wrath, and chasten me not in Your burning anger. For Your arrows have sunk deep into me, and Your hand has pressed down on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities are gone over my head; as a heavy burden they weigh too much for me. My wounds grow foul and fester because of my folly. I am bent over and greatly bowed down; I go mourning all day long. Psalm 38:1-6
Let me say this before I go on—there may be some that here that suffer from clinical depression. Do not construe what I say here to be addressing your condition. You should always seek the aid of a skilled professional to help you interpret and understand what is going on within you.
2) That Christ should suffer and die for us. In Jn 16:20 after Jesus had disclosed that He would suffer and die and be taken away prophesied as follows:
Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.
3) For the suffering around us.
Are we mourning people? Or are we a people that walk around blissfully ignorant of the sorrow all about us. Not that we shouldn’t have a spirit of joy, as well. But there is a real sense that we are within ourselves both mourning and full of joy.
How Jesus exemplifies mourning
Certainly Jesus did not have to mourn for His own sins, He had none. But He did mourn over the effects of sin.
n His compassion for the crowds because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
n His compassion for the sick in that He healed them wherever he went.
n He wept in the dieing of Lazarus, even knowing that Lazarus would be raised up again by His power.
n His mourning for Jerusalem because they were left exposed because of the false teachings of their leaders:
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.
Jesus also mourned for the sins of the world. At Gethsemane He said:
My soul is deeply grieved , to the point of death, remain here and keep watch with Me.
From the cross He cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
Listen to the prophecy of Isaiah regarding the Messiah, who can doubt that this perfectly describes Jesus? Isaiah 53
He was despised and forsaken of men, a man a sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face. He was despised and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Isaiah 53:3-4
How the Jewish leaders contrast with one who mourns
Prime example: Pharisee of Luke 18:9
And [Jesus] also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Comfort
What will come of our mourning? Comfort. The sense of the Greek words used in the phrase, “for they shall be comforted,” is such that they give the understanding that mourners will be comforted by God.
When?
1) In Heaven.
Turn to Luke 16:19-25—Rich man and Lazarus, “But now [Lazarus] is being comforted here, and you are in agony.”
Revelation 22:4 [God] will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will not longer be any death; and there will not be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.
In a very similar passage in Isaiah 60:20 it says: Your sun will no longer set, nor will your moon wane; for you will have the LORD for an everlasting light, and the days of your mourning will be over.
2) Here and now.
n By the Holy Spirit—He is the comforter.
***In His final week before His death Jesus was giving His final instructions to the 12 and in John 14:16 discloses the following: I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you…[drop down to verse 26 ] But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.”***
Now listen to what it says in Acts 9:31: So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.
n By one another—2 Cor 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
How do we become mourners?
1) Become poor in spirit—When a person knows that all he possesses comes from someone else, causing an offense brings real sorrow.
2) Meditate on the holiness of God and the seriousness of sin—nothing assimilates truth into your life better than taking something true and mulling it over in your mind, trying to look at it from a variety of points of view.
3) Count the cost of our atonement
Conclusion:
After rebuking the evil leaders in Israel, the prophet Isaiah records in 57:15-18 the following:
For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the spirit of the contrite…v 18 I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and to his mourners.
There is coming a day when we will not be poor in spirit or that we will not mourn. Not that we won’t recognize that our spiritual riches are due to the grace of God, but rather, such poverty, being absent of the worldly rich, will be recognized by all as true riches. Our mourning will be turned to dancing, not that we won’t recognize that our sins caused great harm to the glory of God. But on the day of the Lord it will become as easy to obeying Him as obeying the law of gravity.
Worshiping Him will be our food
And praising Him our drink.
We will witness His heights as the mountains
And His depth like the seas.
The fire of His glory will heat but not burn,
It will chill but not freeze.
It will captivate but not imprison;
It will hold us but not break us;
It will roll over us but not grind us to dust
To the children of hope the fountain of sorrow
Will in an instant become the fountain of joy,
Of relief,
Of contentment,
Of fulfillment,
Of access,
Of enlightenment,
And peace.
That is “one day.” But today we must strive to be the ideal disciple that Christ wishes to make. And it begins down a narrow, rocky road—with poverty of spirit and a heart full of mourning.