Blessed Are The Poor Series

Blessed are the Poor

Matthew 5:1-3

July 10, 2022

One Sunday after worship --- a little boy told the pastor, “When I get a job, I’m gonna give you some money. The pastor said, “Well, thank you, but why?”

“Because my daddy says you’re one of the poorest preachers we’ve ever had.”

Being poor, ooh, nobody wants to go there, do they? Nobody really wants the word POOR to be associated with their name. I have never met anybody who said being poor is on their bucket list.

We seek to escape it, not to embrace it. Poverty may look good on some saint, like Saint Francis, but it’s not one of our life goals.

We don’t want to be called financially poor, nor do we want it to be said we did a poor job, or that we’re poorly dressed. And we don’t want it to be said we have too many pores on our head!

There’s a former NFL football player, Jamarcus Russell. He was the first pick of the NFL draft in 2007. After 3 years he was released and has been called the biggest draft bust in the NFL. We don’t want that to be said about us in any respect.

“Oh, Deutsch, he had all the tools. He was super talented, but he turned out to be really bad . . . a bust. A poor selection, a poor addition to the team.”

And when it comes to finances, I’ve not heard of too many people who say ‘they’d rather be poor.’ Or ‘no, please reduce my salary, you pay me too much!’

We’re in week 2 of taking a good look at the Sermon on the Mount from Jesus. And we’re looking at the beginning of that sermon, which is called the Beatitudes. The story is found in the gospel of Matthew, in chapter 5 - - -

1 Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him.

2 And Jesus opened His mouth and taught them, saying:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

So, what does this means, “BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT, FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.”

Jesus isn’t talking about being financially poor. He’s talking about being poor in spirit. And who really wants to be called poor in spirit? Certainly not me! I don’t want to be associated with that. So, what’s Jesus getting at with this statement!?

Jesus isn’t talking about economics, He’s talking about every aspect of our being - - - He’s talking about our HEART, our SPIRIT, our MIND, and our BODY. We can’t just give Him a small morsel of ourselves, it’s a striving to give all that we have to Jesus. And this is what makes this passage from Jesus so difficult. In fact, it’s what makes the Beatitudes — counter-intuitive and seemingly backwards.

When Jesus used the word POOR, let me explain what He meant. There are 2 Greek words for POOR. The first word describes a person who has to work for a living, they’re not destitute, but they would be considered struggling financially. Jesus is NOT referring to this type of poor.

The POOR Jesus is talking about - - describes a person who’s destitute of wealth, influence, position, and honor; they’re helpless and powerless. So, when Jesus talks about the poor in spirit, we could say - - - Blessed are those who are destitute of wealth, honor, influence, position and honor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Again, who wants to admit they’re poor - - - whether it be poor in spirit, poor in money, or even poor in their job or dressed - - - - who wants to make that admission?

We tend to look at others and give them extra credit for their stylish clothes, language, looks, and knowledge. We glamorize these people. We uphold them as the standard. But we lose sight that these are the externals, and what Jesus is concerned with is the internal . . . THE SPIRIT and HEART.

Let’s look at a Biblical story to see what Jesus means. In Luke 18, Jesus tells a story about two men.

9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:

10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men — robbers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector.

12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'

13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’