From Poverty To Spiritual Satisfaction Series

Sermon on the Mount- Pt 2

From Poverty to Spiritual Satisfaction

Introduction

Last week started a series on the SOTM- Mtt 5-7.

SOTM- teaching/sermon spoken by Jesus Christ.

It gives us- clear picture- mature Christian looks like.

Best known of Christ teachings- least understood.

Jesus establishes a very high standard for His people.

The SOTM in not about how we become a Christian, but about the works/fruit of one who is a Christian.

SOTM- a new way to understand life- foreign to the natural mind- produces despair in the human heart.

Such despair should turn our hearts to God for help.

First 12 verses- SOTM- known as? The Beatitudes.

Mtt 5:1-12 Read (slides)

Beatitudes are more about what God wants to do in us, than what God wants us to do.

Thoughts from Reese Blanchett …

We want to DO something, God wants us to BECOME something.

We want to depend on ourselves, God wants us to depend on HIM.

We want success, He wants holiness.

The Bible says…

we gain by losing,

we are exalted by being humble,

we rule by serving, and

we receive by giving.

These were hard words for the Jews to hear.

Jesus was telling them they would be blessed in every condition that they had been taught was a curse.

They believed-a sign of God’s blessing was prosperity

Today’s religions/philosophies are based on a …

deeper self-realization,

the Bible speaks of a

deeper God-realization.

What does- word blessed mean in each beatitude?

Blessed- can mean happy.

God is not talking about what makes us feel happy.

He is talking about what He thinks of the man or woman who lives the life of the beatitudes.

Such a person is blessed in God’s eyes.

First Beatitude- Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. V3

Not talking about material poverty.

There are times when God uses material poverty to work in our hearts spiritually.

There are times when material prosperity can be a hindrance to spiritual growth.

Pr 16:19 It is better to be humble in spirit with the lowly Than to divide the spoil with the proud. NASU

Poverty here speaks of humble dependence on God.

John Stott …

The poor man in the Old Testament is one who is both afflicted and unable to save himself, and who therefore looks to God for salvation, while recognizing that he has no claim upon him.

Salvation is a free gift from God that is completely undeserved and must be received w/humility.

He only who is reduced to nothing in himself, and relies on the mercy of God, is poor in spirit. (John Calvin).

To be poor in spirit does not come through self-hatred, but through repentance from our own sin.

It is not a confession that we are worthless/no value, but rather that we are sinful, and need God.

It is God wanting to take us beyond even, “we can do it with His help”, to, “it is all about Him.”

The bed-rock of Jesus Christ’s Kingdom is poverty, not possession; not decisions for Jesus Christ, but a sense of absolute futility, "I cannot begin to do it." Oswald Chamber

We must come to that place where we realize that I cannot help myself- I need God.

Lk 18:9-14 Pharisee vs Publican in prayer

Jud 6:12-15 Gideon’s call to deliver Israel

Poor in spirit- Gideon- inadequate for God’s task.

Second Beatitude- Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. V4

Today life has become the pursuit of a good time.

Alternate translation by John Stott …

Happy are the unhappy.

To mourn in this verse is not personal bereavement.

At the individual level- mourning is over personal sin.

The more we see the purity of God, the blacker our sin becomes, and the greater our mourning.

Isa 6:1-5

Even the angels of heaven covered their faces.

Mourning is the cry of a man who goes after purity in his own strength and cries out ...

Ro 7:24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? NLT

The mourning is the sorrow of recognizing our own spiritual condition/spiritual poverty before God.

I fear that we evangelical Christians, by making much of grace, sometimes thereby make light of sin. (Stott) (Quote from World Magazine)

It is those who mourn their own sinfulness who will be comforted by the forgiveness of God.

Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; NASU

Jesus wept over the sins of others and over the consequences of their sin.