The Perfect Standard For Life
The Way Up Is Down – Part 1 of 8
Reading: Matthew 5v1-3
Jesus’ sermon on the mount is so powerful that we can hardly overstate it’s influence in lives of so many people.
It is simply the greatest sermon ever preached, because it came from the very lips of Jesus Christ Himself.
These words have no expiry date on it and it has an eternal shelf life.
In fact, the sermon on the mount is Jesus actually stating what God originally meant through the Ten Commandments.
Jesus said in Matthew 5v17, “Don’t misunderstand why I have come—it isn’t to cancel the laws of Moses and the warnings of the prophets. No, I came to fulfill them and to make them all come true.” (LB)
However, many people had added hundreds of laws to the Ten Commandment, but Jesus now gets up and tells us what God His Father actually wanted to communicate through the Ten Commandments.
The only commandment Jesus does not speak about is the Sabbath.
But as we go through this sermon, I want you to let it X-ray your heart to see whether you are truly a believer in Christ, and if you are, to what degree of genuineness you are living your life.
My dream is that all our hearts and lives will be penetrated with this truth of God and take us away from the sham lives we live.
…and so we will begin with the Beatitudes, because they will show us what character we ought to have as children of God.
Now, the first four beatitudes focus on our relationship with God, and the second four focus on our relationships one with the other as human beings.
…and each of the eight builds upon the other so that there is a progression as we go along.
So I want you to come next week and the week after, because if you miss out on just one, you will miss the point Jesus is trying to make through all the beatitudes.
…and so as we begin our journey through the sermon on the mount we must first understand the setting.
Jesus has been traveling around Galilee teaching in the synagogues and people are coming to Him in droves for healing.
Great numbers of people were following Him into the wilderness beyond the Jordan river, and then we come to verses 1 and 2, “Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying…” (NIV).
Many years ago now there was a very infamous criminal by the name of Mickey Cohen.
Some people then began to have the idea, if only Mickey Cohen would become a Christian, he would be able to influence many other people in becoming Christians as well.
As result, many prominent Christians began visiting Mickey Cohen in an effort to convince him to become a Christian.
Well, to story goes that late one night after repeatedly encouraging him to open the door of his life to Christ, Mickey Cohen prayed.
Hopes ran high amongst the Christian people, but as time passed no-one saw any change in the lifestyle of Mickey Cohen.
Finally the Christian people confronted him about this matter, and this is what he said,
“I thought I could be a Christian gangster”.
…and I think what that story illustrates to us is what’s happening to many so-called Christians today as well.
In other words, “What good is it if you’re tithing or fasting and obeying all the outward rules and regulations if your heart is still proud and critical and condemning other people?”
You see, though these kind of people may have accepted Christ, they continue to live life as they’ve always lived it, - there is no change whatsoever in their heart, because this is a heart matter.
In other words, you don’t have to murder someone to be a sinner, you only have to hate them to be a sinner. (Matt5v21-26).
The problem is there has been no repentance over their sins and in fact, they are no-where near the Kingdom of God, because they have not experienced a poverty of spirit that this first Beatitude insists is the initial ground of the kingdom of heaven.
In other words,…if you have not come this way,…then you need to expose yourself to the logic of this life-giving Beatitude.
So let’s get into this Beatitude.
First of all, this verse opens with the words, “blessed”.
Now I want us to understand this very clearly, because it will open up our understanding to these verses.
Contrary to popular opinion, the word “blessed” here does not mean “happy”.
Happiness is a feeling and Jesus is not talking about how people feel.
Happiness only comes as you respond to this Beatitude.
Rather, Jesus is making a statement about what God thinks of you and me.
In other words, the word “blessed” here is a judgment of God on you and me that means, “to be approved”, or, “to find approval”, because when God blesses you He approves of you.
In other words, the whole idea around the word “blessed” here is having an awareness of God’s approval on my life.
So being blessed by God means having the smile of God on your life.
…and this is what we must reach for more than anything else in life, - God’s approval of the way we live our lives.
We need to pursue that.
We must pursue that more than money and fame and prestige.
Here’s the question though, and you need to answer this question in your own heart this morning, “Do you really want God’s approval more than anything else in life?”
“I’m not asking you if you want to be happy, but do you truly, with all of your heart, mind and soul desire to have God’s approval above everything else in your life?”
The reason I’m asking you this question is so that you get off to a good start with the first Beatitude if you want to understand the rest of them.
What Is Poverty Of Spirit?
Well, sometimes if you want to understand something better, you must first look at what it does not mean, and that’s what I want to look at first of all.
I want to look at what poverty of spirit does not mean.
a. It does not mean that you are of no value.
Listen to what David said in Psalm 139v14, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your work is wonderful, I know that full well”.
b. It does not mean the absence of self-worth.
In other words,…it does not require that you see yourself as a big old zero in life,…because Jesus says,…that your life is of great value to Him.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 19v19,…to love our neighbours as we love ourselves.
c. It does not mean that you’re a shy person.
d. It does not mean that you’re humble.
“Have you ever come across a person who’s anxious for you to know how humble they are?”
A person like this has no poverty of spirit.
So what does “poverty of spirit” mean?
Let me start off by saying, that to be spiritually poor is the condition of all people, but to be poor in spirit, is to know your spiritual condition before God!
Now, to get an idea what it means we have to look at the word “poor” in it’s original Greek text.
It means, “to tremble and cringe like a beggar”.
In other words, here it speaks of a poverty so deep that the person must obtain their living by begging.
It means that the person is fully dependent upon the giving of others to survive.
It means that he cannot survive without the help from outside his own life.
However, it does not mean you have no spiritual backbone, rather it means having no spiritual pride.
It is the opposite of saying, “I have led a morally good life”.
The person who says that, can only have compared their life with other people, and not the standards of God.
Now, if you take that meaning (blessed and poor) and combine that with the following words, “in spirit”, then we will get an idea what these words actually mean.
It means, “Blessed are the beggarly poor in spirit”.
In other words, “blessed are those who are so desperately poor in their spiritual resources,…that they realize they must have help from outside sources”.
“Poverty of spirit” then is when you personally acknowledge to God your spiritual bankruptcy without Him in your life.
It acknowledges that you and I are completely sinful and cannot be commended to God at all without His help in our lives.
In other words again, it’s when you come before God and acknowledge that you have nothing to offer Christ or impress Him, to save yourself.
So the “poor in spirit” then see themselves as spiritually needy people, Why?, because the first point of connection between God and my soul is when I admit, not what I have, but what I have not.
Another great preacher paraphrased this verse in his own terms like this, “Blessed are those people who realize that they have nothing within themselves to commend them to God, for theirs is the kingdom of God”.
Here’s the question, “Does that describe you?”
You see, poverty of spirit is the other side of selfishness and self-sufficiency of today’s world.
In the society we live in today they are saying it like this,
“Blessed is the man who is always right”.
“Blessed is the man who is always strong”.
“Blessed is the man who is satisfied with himself”.
However,…this is when the words of the Bible become therapy, and biblical interest in uprightness is replaced by a search for happiness.
Truth is replaced by feeling, and all that remains is self.
It leaves us with a picture of a man with his arms wrapped around himself, kissing his own image in a mirror.
To this Jesus answers, “Blessed [approved of God] are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”.
Why Is Poverty Of Spirit So Essential To Us Being Approved By God?
Well,…I want to share with you three reasons why it’s so important.
1. Poverty Of Spirit Is Necessary For Knowing God’s Approval On Your Life.
May I then say, that understanding and taking hold of a true poverty of spirit is the only way you can have God’s approval on your life, because you cannot be filled with God if you do not empty yourself of self.
Christ can never become precious to you until you are poor in spirit.
David became the greatest King of Israel ever, but the key to his success was his poverty of spirit.
Listen to what he says to God in 1 Samuel 7v18, “Who am I, and what is my family or my father’s clan in Israel, that I should become the king’s son-in-law?”
In the same way Gideon’s success in his life begins with these words (Judges 6v16), “But LORD…how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family?”
In the same way again God says to each one of us this morning in Psalm 34v18,
“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit”.
This is the way it will always be.
2. Poverty Of Spirit Is Necessary For You Being Saved By Christ.
If you want to know Christ, then you must have poverty of spirit, because you cannot truly know Christ without it.
That’s what I said earlier.
The first point of contact between God and my soul, is when I admit, not what I have, but what I have not.
That’s why I believe there are many so-called Christians sitting in churches this morning all around RSA who do not know Christ.
They have never come to an emptiness of themselves.
They have never confessed, “There is nothing in me to commend me to God”, and so they are lost.
They’re not in the Kingdom of God – Sham Christians!
Yes, they’re busy with church things, even sometimes in the leadership of the church, but they are lost.
In fact, we often battle more with our imaginary goodness than with our sins.
As someone once said, “The greatest unfitness for Christ is our own imaginary spiritual fitness”.
So here’s my challenge: We must not be satisfied with external religion.
Its like this story of a man racing through the airport to catch his flight.
He passed through security in record time and reached the gate with only moments to spare.
Hurrying aboard the aircraft, he found his seat, opened his laptop computer and tried to work.
A few moments later another passenger boarded the plane and took the empty seat next to the hurried traveler.
Buckling his seatbelt the newcomer turned to the man next to him and asked, “Where are you headed?”
The man looked up from his laptop with his mind still on the last minute task.
His face went blank.
“Where am I going?”, he wondered aloud.
“Where is this plane going?”
“Cape Town”, the other man said.
“Well, that’s where I’m going”.
You see, he had a ticket and was sitting on a plane worth several millions of Rands and he was going somewhere in a hurry, but he did not know where.
In the same way, many people are unhappy because they have no goal, no direction or purpose for their lives.
They don’t know where they are going.
They’re on a merry-go-round that’s had break failure.
Trapped in the same place,…they go round and round and round in the same circles.
They work to make more money to buy more things so they can enjoy more pleasures, - all costing more money.
Most people are actually running away from their past and their responsibilities, but what’s most disturbing is not what they’re running from, but what they’re to – nothing!
However, Jesus said the poor in spirit will be blessed as a result of knowing Him intimately, because they know where they’re going with life.
Yet the truth remains, you cannot come to Christ without poverty of spirit.
It doesn’t mean you have to be perfect, rather it means that those people who think there is something within them that will make God accept them, - these people are lost.
In other words, only if you acknowledge that you yourself are spiritually bankrupt can you actually enter into the kingdom of heaven.
You cannot enter the kingdom of God without such an acknowledgement, regardless of how many times you walk the aisle, raise your hand, sign a decision card, pray the sinners’ prayer or give your testimony or whatever position you hold in the church.
Yes, salvation is by faith alone, but poverty of spirit is the position of faith, why?, because God pours out His grace on the spiritually bankrupt, for only they are open to believe and receive God’s grace and salvation.
In other words, no-one can enter the Kingdom of Heaven without real poverty of spirit.
3. Poverty Of Spirit Is Necessary For Your Continues Spiritual Growth.
The day you become a Christian, that’s not where your growth in Christ stops, because we never outgrow this first Beatitude.
If however you think you’ve outgrown it, then you have outgrown your Christianity.
That is exactly what happened to the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3v17-18 when Jesus said to them, “You say, ‘I am rich, with everything I want; I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that spiritually you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
“My advice to you is to buy pure gold from me, gold purified by fire—only then will you truly be rich. And to purchase from me white garments, clean and pure, so you won’t be naked and ashamed; and to get medicine from me to heal your eyes and give you back your sight.”
In other words, just as you cannot come to Christ to establish a relationship with Him without this poverty of spirit, so also, you cannot continue to grow in Christ apart from having an ongoing poverty of spirit.
You and I can never outgrow poverty of spirit.
In fact, the more spiritually mature you become, the more extreme your poverty of spirit will also become.
What Is Our Reward If We Live Our Lives This Way?
This verse clearly says, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”.
A preacher once said, “The crown of this kingdom will not fit every head” because that little words “theirs”, is very specific of whom it refers to.
It means, “theirs” in the sense of theirs alone, excluding all other people who approach God with a different spirit.
In other words, no other person but that person who is “poor in spirit” will enter the kingdom of God.
…and the reward that is spoken about here is both for now and the future.
The text tells us, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”.
It doesn’t tell us, “for theirs shall be the kingdom of heaven”.
In other words, we are followers of Christ now, and we are over-comers now, as we will be when Christ comes back to judge the world.
We are free to be full of God now.
We reign now and for all eternity.
…and this is what it means in real terms: The moment you humble yourself and pour out your heart to God and recognize that you are spiritually bankrupt and receive Him in your life, then the King of kings comes and sets up His throne in your heart.
For each of us this morning, the merry-go-round of life will end one day.
“What then?”
“What’s going to happen when you have check out of life?”
Well, prior to his death from cancer, former Beatle, George Harrison left a note for family and friends indicating that he was on a continual search for God.
To him, life was just a merry-go-round.
However, Jesus spoke of quality of life for those people who put their faith in Him, and He promised them a certain destination, the kingdom of heaven.
Peter writes in 2 Peter 3v13, “But we are looking forward to God’s promise of new heavens and a new earth afterwards, where there will be only goodness.” (LB)
Jesus also said in John 14v1-3, “Let not your heart be troubled. You are trusting God, now trust in me. There are many homes up there where my Father lives, and I am going to prepare them for your coming. When everything is ready, then I will come and get you, so that you can always be with me where I am. If this weren’t so, I would tell you plainly.” (LB).
In other words, heaven is not a state of mind but a real address, a real place, inhabited by real people, - the poor in spirit.
These are the people who have taken their focus off of themselves and placed their hope in Jesus Christ, people who know where they are going.
No person without this poverty of spirit can enter the kingdom of God.
No person is saved who believes within himself or herself there is something that will make God accept them.
Self-assurance and pride and worthless beliefs will destroy our souls forever.
…and Jesus made this very clear for us when he told the story of the tax collector and the Pharisee who went up to the Temple to pray (Luke 18v10-14),
Its kind of giving us some commentary of two people who say they are Christians coming to church to pray.
They both come to church and they both carry a Bible and perhaps even a notebook.
However, the one is a sham Christian and the other one is a real Christian.
Listen to this story: “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a proud, self-righteous Pharisee, and the other a cheating tax collector. The proud Pharisee ‘prayed’ this prayer: ‘Thank God, I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there! For I never cheat, I don’t commit adultery, I go without food twice a week, and I give to God a tenth of everything I earn.’ “But the corrupt tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed, but beat upon his chest in sorrow, exclaiming, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home forgiven! For the proud shall be humbled, but the humble shall be honored.” (LB)
In other words, the first link between my soul and Christ, is not my goodness, but my badness, not my merit but my misery, not my standing, but my falling.
Conclusion.
…and so God says, “Blessed [approved of God] are the [beggarly] poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven [now and forever more]”.
The question I must ask you is this, “Have you experienced this true poverty of spirit?”
Can you say with that old song writer, “Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to they cross I cling;
Naked, came to thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, O to the fountain fly;
Wash me Saviour, or I die.
“Is this your heart’s cry or are you a church attender without Christ?”
“Are you busy with church activities, even perhaps in a leadership position, but you’ll never see the kingdom of heaven?”
“What is the state of your soul this morning?”
Paul asks the question in 2 Cor 13v5 of the Christian people, and I think we will do well if we can answer these questions for ourselves, “Check up on yourselves. Are you really Christians? Do you pass the test? Do you feel Christ’s presence and power more and more within you? Or are you just pretending to be Christians when actually you aren’t at all?”(LB)
Then listen to what God says to you this morning, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”.
In other words, God’s mercy only begins when we come to the end of ourselves and know ourselves to be hard-hearted sinners.
In other words, where we end, God’s mercy begins.
As some preacher once said, “In Christ my spiritual bankruptcy has been the opening for His riches in my life”.
It can be yours as well.
Listen to what God says in Isaiah 66v2, “…Yet I will look with pity on the man who has a humble and a contrite heart, who trembles at my word.”. (LB).
In other words, it is only as you discover your own nothingness because of your sinfulness, that you discover your blessedness in Christ.
You only become a candidate for God’s Grace, by becoming poor in your spirit.
So here’s a prayer you can pray:
Lord, keep me low, and empty me more and more.
Lay me in the dust and let me be dead and buried as to all that is in myself.
Then shall Jesus live in me and reign in me, and be truly my All-in-all.
“What about you this morning?”
“Have you come into the Kingdom this way?, because if you haven’t, then you’re not in the Kingdom of God!”
