Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit Series

Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit

Matthew -5:1-3

OKAY – let’s do this! Week 8, of our study in Matthew’s Gospel, “The King and His Kingdom.”

Our Text today is Matthew 5:1-3…

I am going to read it, and then pray us into our time of study.

Now when Jesus saw the crowds,

REMEMBER – Jesus is in Galilee, teaching and preaching that people need to, “Repent for the Kingdom of God is near”

(invitation not a threat… an invitation to a change of mind, that leads to a change of heart, to a changed life)…

AND – not only is Jesus teaching and preaching but He is healing every sickness and disease among the people.

AND SO – large crowds are following Him.

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:1-3

Prayer

In 2010 a multimillionaire from New Mexico named Forrest Fenn had this idea of getting America to turn off the televisions and turn off the video games and to go on an adventure.

SO HE - took some of his treasures—gold coins, diamonds, emeralds, millions of dollars worth of valuables—and he put them in a chest and he hid the chest, sending America on this treasure hunt.

NOW - He provided a poem with nine clues that if you read it, it tells you nothing, in my opinion. And thousands of people have gone off looking for this hidden treasure, using this poem with nine clues.

A 32 year old medical student from Michigan finally found the treasure on July 2021 in Wyoming and Fenn died 2 months later in September at the age of 90.

He has an autobiography called The Thrill of the Chase, and he just talks about (how) that the most valuable things, the most beautiful things, are not easily found. They’re not just out there; they’re hidden. HE SAYS – that you’ve got to search for them. You’ve got to go look for them.

AND LISTEN – as we come to the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5 through 7) in our study of Matthew’s Gospel,

‘The King and The Kingdom,’

And specifically the first 12 verses where we find what is known as, ‘The Beatitudes’

WE – are going to go on a bit of a treasure hunt together,

AND LISTEN - what we’re going to find is that for us to understand what Jesus is telling us about the Kingdom that He is establishing in these verses (in in the entire Sermon on the Mount for that matter) will take some effort.

LIKE – we will have to look for it, seek after it, pursue it.

Which should not surprise us because Jesus says this about His Kingdom in Matthew chapter 13…

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

– Matthew 13:44-46

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. -Colossians 1:13,14

22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. – Hebrews 12:22-24

AGAIN - the Bible describes the kingdom of Heaven as a treasure that’s hidden in a field.

AND SO - we’re going to study, over the next have ever long it takes’ weeks, The Sermon on The Mount,

Beginning with the Beatitudes Matthew chapter 5.

Which are kind of like, eight clues that Jesus gives us to find this treasure of Kingdom Life, to find what it really means to live life to the full.

If you have your Bibles go ahead and turn there or fire up your Bible App to Matthew chapter 5.

BUT BEFORE – we go there check out this powerful verse in Colossians 3:3. It says,

You died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.