The Jesus Manifesto: Blessed are the Poor in Spirit
Matthew 5:3; Luke 18:9-14
Chenoa Baptist Church
7-01-18
Yeezus?
Kanye West is a musician, songwriter, producer, entrepreneur, and fashion designer. He’s also Mr. Kim Kardashian. He is famous for being outlandishly arrogant and calls himself “Yeezus.” In a recent interview, he said this about himself:
“I’m going down as a legend, whether you like me or not. The Bible had twenty, thirty, forty, fifty characters in it, don’t you think I would be one of the characters of the modern Bible? My greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live. I am the number one human being in music, that makes any person living or breathing number two. I am the number one impactful artist of our generation. I am Shakespeare in the flesh.”
When we hear those words, don’t they make us cringe? Why? We wince because he’s so full of himself. He’s delusional. He’s prideful. It’s hard not to laugh at Kanye when he talked like this. By the way, Kanye has said publicly that he is a Christian.
Let me begin the sermon with a confession. Oftentimes, in my heart, I’m much closer to Kanye than I am to Jesus. And I bet, if you were honest, sometimes you are too.
Review from Last Week
Last week, we began our summer sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount. Let me give you a couple of reminders about the section we are studying called the “Beatitudes.”
* The word “Beatitude” means “blessed.” We learned that to be blessed literally means to be “approved by God.” Max Lucado says we get “the applause of heaven.”
* Jesus painted a picture of what a disciple of His Kingdom looks like as they live out their faith in a lost and dying world.
* I’m sure there were many in the crowd that was terribly disappointed with this sermon. They wanted a leader that would end the Roman occupation of their land and restore Israel to its former glory.
* Only believers can live out the Beatitudes. Without the Spirit, it is impossible for us to live these out. Just as an apple try doesn’t have to try to produce an apple, we don’t have to try to live these virtues. As we surrender to Jesus, the Spirit works through us to produce the virtues of the Beatitudes.
* They are a package deal. We cannot pick and choose. There are eight Beatitudes listed. The first four deal with our relationship to God. The second four deal with our relationship to others. The first and last are in the present tense. The second through seventh are in the future tense, indicating a “now and not yet” quality to Jesus’ teaching.
* They are not a “to-do” list. They are a “to-be” list. The Beatitudes are a manifesto for being on mission for His Kingdom. To be or not to be…like Jesus. That’s our question for today.
Turn with me to Matthew 5. Let’s read this together.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)
We are going to dive deep into the first Beatitude today. We will spend most of our time in Luke 18, so you might want to turn there in your Bibles or your Bible app.
Prayer
The Paradox of Poverty
About five years ago, we built an addition on to our house. Our boys were teenagers and they had friends coming over all the time. We wanted to host our small group and have room for guests.
We hired a friend of mine to be the contractor and we built it with our bare hands. I’m not the handiest of guys so this was a real learning experience. The first thing he did was dig a huge hole in the back of our house! I was confused and he explained you have to dig down deep and make a strong foundation so that part of the house will be solid and safe.
That’s what the first Beatitude is. It is the foundation on which all the other Beatitudes rest.
Jesus sat down, looked around at the disciples and the crowd, and said, “Blessed are the powerful and pretty, like Brad Pitt. Blessed are the strong. Blessed are the self-sufficient.” Is that how He started the sermon? He did not.
He started the sermon with a startling announcement that the “poor in Spirit” are the ones who will be blessed and get to be part of the Kingdom. What does this mean?
First looks look at what it doesn’t mean:
* It is not false humility. I heard of a guy who was given a medal at church for his humility. The next week, he wore it to church and they took it away from him!
* It is not an inferiority complex. This is an honest evaluation of your position before a holy God.
* Jesus is not talking about material poverty. There is a Greek word for that. He uses a different word that we will get to in just a minute. You can live in poverty but not be poor in spirit. You can be very wealthy and be poor in spirit, although Jesus says this is a very hard thing to do (see Matthew 19:16-24).
Jesus uses another word in this verse. At the root, it means to “crouch or stoop.” It has the idea of bending low, of absolute and abject destitution. He is describing a person that has nothing and is totally dependent on God. He puts to death the idea of self-sufficiency before a Holy and Righteous God. It is the complete absence of pride, self-assurance, and self-reliance. It is a deep humility that leads to authenticity.
Jesus came to preach to the people who understood that they must declare spiritual bankruptcy before God. One Sabbath, he went into a synagogue and open to the scroll of Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19, emphasis mine)
It is to the beggars that Jesus bestows a blessing.
Eugene Peterson, in his paraphrase of this verse, puts it this way:
“You are blessed when you are at the end of your rope – with less of you there is more room for God and His rule.” (Matthew 5:3, The Message)
D.A. Carson explains it well:
“The Kingdom of Heaven is not given on the basis of race, earned merits, the military zeal of the Zealots, or the wealth of a Zacchaeus. It is given to the poor, the despised, the tax collectors, and the prostitutes. It is offered to those who are so poor that they know that they cannot offer anything and do not even try. They cry for mercy and alone are heard.”
No wonder the tax collectors and the sinners loved Jesus! This is good news!
If you ask people how you get to heaven most people in this culture would say you have to be “good.”
You might say, “Pastor Jeff, I’m pretty humble. I think I’m doing okay. I try to be a good person. Isn’t that enough?”
My question back to you would be, “how good is good enough?”
Jesus blew his listeners away by making this comparison:
“For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20)
Whoa! Those were the Godliest people in the whole culture.
Just a few verses later, He makes His point painfully clear:
“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)
Are you beginning to see that being “beggars in God’s soup kitchen” (Lucado) is actually a good description of those who understand that God demands perfection and you cannot hop high enough for His holiness?
John Stott wrote, “No other section of Scripture makes us face ourselves like the Sermon on the Mount.”
Do you see yourself as a spiritual beggar, with nothing to add to your salvation except the sin that nailed Him to the cross, or does that make you feel uncomfortable? Does your pride well up inside of you and want to argue about this?
Let’s take a look at one of Jesus’ parables that will flesh this out for us. Turn with me to Luke 18.
A Parable for the Proud
Wherever Jesus went, crowds surrounded him. These crowds were made up of all kinds of people, from the spiritually dead to the spiritual snobs. We are told that this particular parable is for the snobs. Look at verse 9:
“To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:” (Luke 18:9)
The phrase “looked down on” can be translated “to utterly despise.” I love the way the Message paraphrases this verse, “To some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people.” Ouch! These spiritually superior super-saints were about to learn a lesson about what is most important in the kingdom of God.
White Hat…Black Hat
Jesus begins the story by telling setting the stage:
"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” (Luke 18:10)
There are two characters in the story – a Pharisee and a tax collector. His listeners would have automatically understood that this was a story about a good guy and a bad guy. The only problem with Jesus is you never know which one is which.
First, we see a Pharisee going up to Jerusalem to pray. This is not out of the ordinary. Pharisees were good at praying. The word Pharisee literally means “separated ones” and were members of a strict sect that gained prominence in the century before Christ was born. This man was probably the head of the synagogue and a member of the city council. He knew the Scriptures, much of it by heart. He knew all the rules and was a stickler for form and tradition. He was a good guy, well respected in the community. He wore a white hat. Parents wanted their children to grow up to be Pharisees.
The second man seems out of place. A tax collector going to the Temple to pray would be highly unusual. He is the “bad guy” of the story. He had sold his soul to Rome for a cheap buck. The Romans occupied Israel at this time and were hated. This guy not only worked for the enemy, but also skimmed money off the top and got rich off his own countrymen. He was not even allowed in the synagogue, could not hold public office, and couldn’t testify in court. You didn’t want your babies to grow up to be tax collectors.
Dueling Prayers
Next, Jesus tells us what they prayed. You can learn a lot about someone by listening to his or her prayers.
The Pharisee was a professional. He walked to the center of the inner court, ruffled his prayer shawl, cleared his throat, struck a pose and prayed:
“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. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ (Luke 18:11-12)
His prayer contained thirty-three words and five of those were the word “I.” His prayer begins with a comparison between himself and others who are less righteous than he. He ends his prayer by listing, loudly, all the good things he has done for God. To the people in the crowd, this would have been expected from this character. Remember, he is the “good guy.”
As I said before, the tax collector’s presence in the Temple is a bit awkward:
"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.’ (Luke 18:13)
The tax collector knew better than to go into the inner court, so we find him “standing at a distance” probably somewhere in the outer court. No flowing robes, no fancy words. In fact, just seven words – “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” No comparisons, who could he compare himself to anyway? No list of “good deeds.” It was just a humble plea for pardon. He asked, while beating his chest, for mercy, undeserved favor. While our hearts may go out this poor guy, to Jesus’ first-century audience this guy was going to get just what he deserved –judgment!
A Terrible Twist
Everyone had the story figured out, or so they thought. Jesus finished the story by telling them who was actually justified, made right, before God. He said, “The tax man went home right with God” and every jaw in the crowd dropped. Can’t you hear the gasps? The whispers? “Tax collectors are bad guys. God doesn’t listen to them! Who does this guy think he is?!” Jesus, anticipating their response, drops this bombshell on them:
“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:14)
Again, we see the upside down theology of Jesus. Many in the crowd walked away mumbling, “What was that all about?”
What the Point of the Parable?
What is the point of this parable? What is the moral lesson we can learn? I do not believe it is matter of “good and bad.” The point is that the Pharisee wasn’t real. He was plastic, superficial, a poser. The tax collector brought to God his real self, warts and all. When it comes to God, He demands reality.
The problem with reality is that is so hard to find in this culture. Even “reality TV” is not real! Unfortunately, reality is hard to find even within the walls of the church.
That’s why Mark Hall of Casting Crowns wrote the song, “Stained Glass Masquerade.” In the chorus he asked some pretty pointed questions:
“Are we happy plastic people/under shiny plastic steeples/with walls around our weakness and smiles to hide our pain/if the invitation open/to every heart that has been broken/then maybe we can close the curtain on this stained glass masquerade.”
That’s we are talking about this morning, being real with God and others. I want you to write the word “REAL” down the margin of your Bible.
Relationship vs. Religion
Look at the parable with me again. The Pharisee was religious. Most people, including Jesus’ audience, thought that was a good thing. The only problem was that some of Jesus’ most stinging criticism was directed at the religious people. In just one section of Scripture in Matthew, Jesus called the Pharisees “hypocrites” (Matthew 23:23); “blind guides” (Matthew 23:16); “white washed tombs” (Matthew 23:27); and “snakes, brood of vipers” (Matthew 23:33). Jesus did not mince words when it came to religion.
They had substituted following rules for falling in love with God. Religion seeks to reduce God to a formula. If you jump through the right hoops then you win brownie points with God.
Isaiah wrote:
“The Lord says: ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. (Isaiah 29:13)
The Pharisee’s prayer consisted of two very religious practices – comparison and conceit. He thanked God that he was not like other men, especially not like the tax collector. Religious people are good at comparing themselves to others. The problem with that outlook is that we are never called to compare ourselves to other people. If I compare myself to an ax-murderer, I can become pretty snug about my soul. But, if I compare myself to Jesus, I keep coming up short. The righteous robes we proudly wear are as “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6) to the sinless Savior.
The second part of his prayer is basically bragging. He fasted twice a week and tithed all he had. Doesn’t that sound spiritual? Well, it isn’t! God never commanded the Jews to fast twice a week, only once a year on the Day of Atonement (see Lev 23:26-32). God certainly did not expect people to tithe everything. Can you imagine this Pharisee measuring out a tenth of “dill spice?”
The Pharisees had added 613 laws to God’s commands. They determined that in order to be a “good” Jew one had to follow all of their rules. That’s why religion is spelled, “do.” I must follow the right rules, do the right things, jump through the correct hoops in the correct order in order to be right with God. I am so glad that things have changed…
When I was in seminary, I worked at Red Lobster. It was an incredible mission field and I took seriously my role as local “preacher boy.” There was one girl in particular who kept asking questions about God and I was praying for an opportunity to share my faith with her. There were several young students from a local Bible college who started working there over the summer. They were zealous and annoying. I considered them harmless until the day that Liz asked me to come to the back with her.
I noticed she was crying. She told me that one of the bible college guys had told her she was going to hell because her hair was short. She was mad and scared and asked me, in front of ten other people, what I thought was the most important thing she needed to know from the Bible. I immediately told her that “for God so loved Liz that he gave his only begotten Son so that if she would just believe in Him she would never have to worry about hell again” (see John 3:16-17).
Then I took the guy to the side and told him Liz wasn’t going to hell because of her hair. She was going to hell because of her heart. She needed to be loved, listened to, and challenged to respond to God’s love for her. She did not need to be bullied by a bunch of legalistic hair inspectors. (I said this in Christian love of course!) To him, hair equaled holiness. Liz was not even a Christian (cows don’t lay eggs) but he was holding her to his standard of spirituality. Religion is useless, burdensome, and irritating.
God called the Pharisee and the tax collector to a relationship with Him based completely on grace. Paul puts it plainly:
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Relationship is spelled “done.” You do not have to earn God’s love. Both men had the opportunity to approach the God of the universe. The Pharisee found that religion was easier.
How about you? Are you trusting in rules or holding on to a relationship with Christ?
Religious people cause division. Jesus people lean into relationships. In church, religious people make it about their wants, their preferences. Jesus people come to church to say thank you to God.
Express Your Need for Forgiveness
Look back to verse 11. To whom did the Pharisee pray? Himself! The Pharisee’s prayer was for show, to be seen and heard. It had little to do with needing God.
The tax collector’s prayer was just the opposite. It was brimming with need - the need for relationship, restoration, forgiveness, and mercy. He quietly cried out for a second chance, or a third, or a fourth. He closed his eyes, brought his fist slamming down on his wicked heart, and asked for mercy. He knew, unlike the Pharisee, he did not deserve it. In fact, he uses a very interesting word for mercy that meant, “to make restoration by means of a sacrifice.” You think Jesus was trying to tell His listeners something?
We humans are a needy race. We need air, food, and water to survive physically. We need relationships and affirmation to survive emotionally. And we need God to survive spiritually. We need God’s forgiveness and mercy like a drowning man needs a life preserver. Strangely many people act like the Pharisee and pretend they don’t need God. It was been said that the “only person God will send away empty handed is the one that is full of himself.”
There are times though when our need becomes critical. When we understand that without radical intervention we will be lost in the sea of our sin. The tax collector recognized this better than most of us. Something that is not captured in the English is how he describes himself. In the Greek, the text literally reads, “the sinner.” He doesn’t say, “a sinner” but “the sinner” – a truly bad guy with a truly bad heart. Paul echoes this sentiment in his letter to young Timothy:
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.” (I Timothy 1:15-16)
It is the tax collector’s lack of pride and humility that draws God’s heart:
“For this is what the high and lofty One says-- he who lives forever, whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Isaiah 57:15)
Solomon wrote in his journal of wisdom:
“He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” (Proverbs 28:13)
The tax collector understood his powerlessness and cried out for help and God heard, as He still does today.
Forgiven people forgive people. Forgiven people keep short accounts and handle conflict in a Biblical way.
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)
But when you are poor in spirit, you know you have needs and that only God can meet them. Do you recognize your need for forgiveness?
Admit you are a Mess
As I talk to people in the community, I hear this statement a lot: “I’ll come to church when I get my act together.” If having your “act together” is a prerequisite for church, my membership would have been revoked long ago.
One of the reasons I love the Bible is that it presents real people with all their problems, insecurities, and doubts. Noah was a man of dogged determination, faith, and purity. After the ark had settled and he had built an altar to honor the Lord, he got drunk and passed out naked in his tent (see Genesis 9). I haven’t heard many sermons on those verses. Noah was messy.
David was a man after God’s on heart but was also an arrogant, impulsive, cheating, lying, murderer in his spare time. David was messy.
Paul the greatest theological mind of all time was messy. Listen to part of his journal as recorded in the seventh chapter of Romans:
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do… For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:15, 17)
That sounds like me on any given day. At least Paul knew the answer to this dilemma.
Listen as he concluded this section:
“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25)
Only through Jesus does our messiness make sense. People love to put on masks and pretend that everything is ok. But we are all a mess. Theologically, it is called “sin.” Paul wrote that we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23).
Everyone one of us has a dark side. We all are tempted to put on a mask and pretend like we don’t have issues like depression, anxiety, addictions, or anger. We compare ourselves to people who seem messier and feel better about ourselves.
Somewhere along the line, the idea got out that in order to be a “good” Christian you have to have in all together. One writer said it this way, “I don’t think it bothers the world that we sin. I think it bothers the world when we act like we don’t.”
Mike Yaconelli, in his book, “Messy Spirituality” list four characteristics of real Christianity: unfinishedness, incompetence, desperateness, and a concept called “unpretending.” He writes:
“Unfortunately, in many religious circles, there exists an unwritten rule. Pretend. Act like God is in control when you don’t believe He is. Pretend you believe when you doubt; hide your imperfections; maintain an image of a perfect marriage and healthy and well-adjusted children when your family is like any other normal dysfunctional family. And whatever you do, don’t admit you sin….when you and I stop pretending, we expose the pretending of everyone else. The bubble of the Christian life is burst, and we all must face the reality of our brokenness.”
Ann Lemont wrote these freeing words, “It’s okay to realize that you are crazy and damaged. All the best people are.”
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners [totally messes], Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)?
Messy people give grace to other messy people. Messy churches are safe places that messy people can find Jesus.
Live a life of Freedom and Grace
After each man had prayed, they both walked out of the Temple. I am convinced the way they left was radically different. The Pharisee left exactly the way he came in – a self-righteous strutting rooster. He had done his religious duty. Maybe, just maybe, his gait was a little slower. After all, religion is burdensome.
The tax collector approached the Temple weighed down by guilt and shame. He left the Temple dancing to the rhythm of grace. How do we know that? Because Jesus tells us that it was the tax collector who was “justified” before God. You can remember this concept by saying, “just-as-if-I-had-never-sinned.” The tax collector was made right with God. The relationship was restored not on any merit of his human accomplishments.
We love to quote Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” How often do we keep going to verse 24?
“…and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:24)
Mercy and freedom are always God’s gifts to give of His own choosing. The tax collector knew what it meant to be lost. As he leaves the Temple, he discovers the joy and freedom of being found.
Those who live in freedom and grace will the first people to invite others to experience this freedom. Churches that understand what being “poor in spirit” means will trumpet the Good News from the rooftops. The poor in spirit get the kingdom!
Video: The Good-o-Meter
Silas and the Cookie
I went to a large men’s gathering some time ago and, honestly, I was in religious mode. I was whining about the worship and was less than inspired by the speakers. I walked into the breezeway and said quietly, “God I need you to teach me something here today. Please help me to listen.” At lunchtime, I grabbed my box and tore into my turkey sandwich. Sitting next to me was a man who was eying my cookie. My heart immediately became cold. This event was held on the fairgrounds and I knew that a lot of homeless guys lived at the fairgrounds. I immediately judged him as a loser, a drug-addicted drain on society. I am not proud to tell you that, but it is the truth.
Silas, he had introduced himself by this time, did not have many teeth. He wore purple pants and a pink shirt. He stood out, he didn’t belong. I finally asked him if he lived here at the fairgrounds. He answered that he actually lived on the streets in the downtown area. Barely hiding my contempt, I asked how he got into the conference.
I will never forget his answer, “Jeff, I was sleeping yesterday afternoon when a van drove up. The man inside told me he was a pastor and would like to take me to Promise Keepers. I didn’t know what that was but he promised me food, a shower, and a bed. Can’t refuse that, you know. Well, last night that first guy started speaking and how God loves me and something happened to me. I just knew it was true. God loves me. I got up, walked down to the prayer tent and gave my life to Jesus.” By this time he was beaming. “They told me that Jesus can help me stop drinking and doing drugs. Do you believe that Jeff?” By this time I was bawling. I was barely able to get the words out but assured him that Jesus’ love could free him from anything.
Jesus had shown up and I had missed Him. I had on the right clothes, knew the words to the songs, and knew when to say amen. I was the Pharisee. Silas didn’t know squat but found freedom and new humbled friend… and a free cookie.
We come to communion this morning.
I was listening to a pastor this week and he said that while they did communion that day he had a woman ask him if it cost anything to participate. He said, “Yes, but the price was incredibly high. But it’s free to us because it cost God so much.”
Jesus died to make us real. To free us from the pressures of pretending. To provide for our pardon and forgiveness. God isn’t shy about demonstrating how He feels about you:
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:7-10)
