Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit
A Look at the Sermon on the Mount • Sermon • Submitted
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· 5 viewsIntroduction to the Sermon on the Mount, a look at the Beatitudes
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If I had to pick just one word to describe the nature and character of Jesus Christ in His earthly ministry that word would be: Compassion. It was compassion which led Him to feed the multitude, and ultimately it would be compassion which would lead Him to the cross. But before the Lord went to the cross, He had some work to do.
Just outside the sloping hills of Capernaum, Jesus gives one of the greatest sermons ever recorded: The sermon on the mount. In this three chapter-long sermon Jesus gives some remarkable truth...
He didn't come to reprogram humanity, He came set mankind straight. The Pharisees, and the religious crowd had perverted His law into something it was never meant to be. They went about "keeping" the law to be seen of men and to demonstrate how holy they were. But Jesus came to explain that holiness was typically not something that was "seen". What we tend to see are the results of someone's holiness (or the lack thereof).
Holiness is not a "bad" word by the way. We are commanded to be holy throughout the Bible. The word Holy means to be separate, or different. Look with me at our text as I point out another interesting word… "Blessed" is from the Greek word commonly described as “happy”. God wants you to be happy, but on His terms, not yours!
In this sermon we're going to examine, Jesus explains how we can be happy. It's interesting, however, because our Lord equates happiness with holiness.
Look at verse 3 with me again and let's look at the Lord's first explanation of happiness…
Interrogative: Do you want to be happy?
Proposition: Then be poor.
Let's look together at what it means to be truly poor in spirit. First, …
It Does not mean we are "Poor Spirited"
It Does not mean we are "Poor Spirited"
May I tell you, God did not call you to be a doormat
To be poor in spirit does not mean that you do not have to have a backbone
I the book of 1 Kings there is a prophet named Micaiah, look with me in chapter 22 of that book, beginning in verse 1
It took courage to stand before the king and to speak the truth, but I promise you, Micaiah, was happy because he knew he had a right standing before the Lord
As God's children, we are to have courage when we stand before men and to speak up for our Lord every chance we get
To be poor in spirit does not mean to be poor spirited or to be a coward, it means know your place before a holy God and to accept it gladly!
It does not mean a false humility
It does not mean a false humility
Humility is a trait that the very moment you realize you have it, you don't have it.
It is not a false humility
You put yourself down
You don't take credit for something you know you're good at
It is OK to be good at something
IT is not OK to believe you are the best and there is no one better
It is also not OK to deny that you are good, or talented, or intelligent
Humility is not thinking too highly of yourself, or thinking too lowly of yourself. Humility is simply not thinking of yourself.
I wonder why our Lord would choose to begin His teaching ministry on this subject? Why HE would explain happiness through holiness by beginning with humility? Well, consider the Pharisees:
I can't think of a better example that the Pharisee comparing himself with the publican in Luke 18:10-13
Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
The Pharisee, thought too highly of himself, counting his public display of "holiness" as being actual holiness. The publican, knew his place before God and begged for forgiveness. By the way, the word translated as "poor" in Matthew 5, means a beggar. So, what does it mean to be poor in spirit?
It means to have a correct estimate of yourself
It means to have a correct estimate of yourself
You possess a sense of utter spiritual destitution
You realize that before a holy and mighty God you are: nothing
There is nothing you can do to please Him, so you must come to Him as a beggar pleading for help, for forgiveness
You possess as sense of pure dependence upon God in your daily life
When you are poor in spirit you will realize that every situation, every decision, must be bathed in prayer
John Wesley said, "The neglect of prayer is a grand hindrance to holiness"
When you're poor in spirit, you will desire to live to your full potential as a Christian, we do this by,
By knowing our limitations -
not attempting things beyond our means
Not attempting to impress others by being something we're not
Accepting our abilities
Not being braggadocios our accomplishments
Not "downplaying" our achievements either
Being who we are for the glory of God
God knows us, who we truly are, that's how He made us, and that is who He wants us to be
You cannot glorify God by trying to be someone or something you're not meant to be
Conclusion: Happiness is equated with holiness. Happiness is equated with being poor in spirit, not spineless, not being falsely humble, but by having a correct understanding of yourself as who and how God made you and being that person for His glory.
This world will tell you that if you want happiness, then you must seize life by the horns and "Go after it"! You must not have a true understanding of yourself, you must think better of yourself. God says, if you want true happiness, the kind of happiness He calls blessedness, then you must see yourself as He sees you, as weak, and dependent fully upon Him. Do you want to be happy? Then realize you're poor.