Sermon on Mount
Blessed are the spiritual Zeros
May 9, 2004
Today I start working through our series on the on the Beatitudes. I.e. Dan and Deanne’s bareness. It is at the outset of the Sermon on the Mount that we learn that we do not have the spiritual resources to put any of the Sermons principles into practice. Today I want to talk about coming to grips with the fact that we are spiritual zeroes.
I must acknowledge my spiritual barrenness
What do you think poor in spirit means? Poor in spirit means that we realize our spiritual and moral bankruptness, barrenness, spiritual zeros, deficient before God. We have no moral goodness or spiritual goodness to offer to God in any way that earns merit or brownie points with him. In the material world someone who is poor or bankrupt understands the depth of his or her need for help. The poor will go to public assistance; they will beg on the city streets, they will take any kind of job to make money. A bankrupt person will to extreme means to get themselves out of their hole. Poor is spirit is coming to grips with our spiritual and moral emptiness or as I have titled the message spiritual zeros. But not everyone sees themselves this way or feels this way about themselves.
Luke 18:9-14 illustrates what Jesus is talking about. Luke 18:9 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.’ 14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
The one is so full of themselves because of their own self righteousness, religious clout, gifting, charisma, yet is oblivious to his own spiritual need. The other recognizes his own unworthiness before God and throws himself at God for mercy. There is no pride more deadly than that which finds its roots in great learning, great external piety, or showy defense of orthodoxy. Pride based upon genuine virtues has the greatest potential for self-deception. There are some of us like that Pharisee today. We would not identify ourselves this way but our attitudes and our actions betray us. We do not like the way some people come dressed to church and so we think less of them because of it. We do not even like some of the people that show up on Sundays. They can sense it; they don’t feel welcome. Some of us are satisfied with our spiritual lives but have no strong appetite for God. God does not excite us – but a new project does. God does not excite us but the King opener does. God does not excite us but an upcoming vacation does. We are spiritual zeros and we know it but we are too proud to admit it. What will others think? Then there are others whose lives are caving in on themselves but are too proud to admit it, to reach out.
Mark 2:15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and ’sinners’?" 17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." In other words, the only people who will ever come to get what Jesus has to give are sick people, people who know that they are spiritually and morally and very often physically crippled.
Look at Moses. When God came to him with a mission to lead his people out of Israel, he said, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" . . . "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." (Exodus 3;11; 4:10). The reason God got angry with Moses is not because of his humble assessment of his own abilities, but of his lack of faith in God’s ability. God responded and said to Moses, "Who made man’s mouth? Who makes him dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak" (Exodus 4:11-12).
The Biblical solution when a person is paralyzed by a sense of guilt or unworthiness or uselessness is not self-esteem. God did not say to Moses, "Stop putting yourself down. You are somebody. You are eloquent." That is not the Biblical way. What God said was, "Stop looking at your own unworthiness and uselessness and look at me. I made the mouth. I will be with you. I will help you. I will teach you what to say. Look to me and live!"
Look at John the Baptist. "I baptize with water; but among you stands one whom you do not know, even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie... He must increase, I must decrease" (John 1:27; 3:30). Could this be why Jesus said, "Among those born of women, none is greater than John" (Luke 7:28).
Look at the Centurion in Luke chapter 7:6-9. So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: "Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ’Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ’Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ’Do this,’ and he does it." 9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel." So we learn from the centurion that poverty of spirit is right at the very heart of what true faith is.
Look at Paul. "I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh..." (Roman 7:18). "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth..." (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). Paul would not take credit for the fruit of his ministry – God gave the growth.
I Must Sense my Spiritual bareness
What then is poverty of spirit? It is a sense of powerlessness in ourselves. It is a sense of spiritual bankruptcy and helplessness before God.
It is a sense of moral uncleanness before God. It is a sense of personal unworthiness before God. It is a sense that if there is to be any life or joy or usefulness, it will have to be all of God and all of grace. It is not about me, it is about God.
The reason I say it is a SENSE of powerlessness and a SENSE of bankruptcy and a SENSE of uncleanness and a SENSE of unworthiness, is that, objectively speaking, everybody is poor in spirit. Everybody, whether they sense it or not, is powerless without God and bankrupt and helpless and unclean and unworthy before God. But not everybody is "blessed". When Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," he does not mean everybody. He means those who feel it. That is why it is so appropriate to take the first and second beatitudes together. "Blessed are those who mourn," clarifies the subjective side of being poor in spirit.
Blessed are the poor in spirit who mourn. Blessed are the people who feel keenly their inadequacies and their guilt and their failures and their helplessness and their unworthiness and their emptiness -- who don’t try to hide these things under a cloak of self-sufficiency, but who are honest about them and grieved and driven to the grace of God. That is not the Alaskan way; Alaskans are a proud, self sufficient, strong, and have an independent spirit. Jesus says blessed are weak in spirit. Blessed are you! Because you are going to be comforted. At the heart of true saving faith is coming to grips with our spiritual and moral emptiness. We know it and we feel it. We agonize over our sin and the sin of others.
I want us to be a church where we do not come here with masks on because it is not ok to admit our failures, our inadequacies, and our brokenness. I want us to be a haven, a hospital for the helpless and hopeless. I want our small groups to be a place where we can open up because we have come to grips with the fact that we are spiritual zeroes and we can lock arms with one another or lift each other up, or just hug each other because it just hurts. Unless it is ok to be messed up and admit it those who are messed up and admit it will not come. One of the reasons I do not dress up is that it ads a sense of formality and that formality breeds distance between us.
The Blessing/Promise is access to heavens resources
People that know they are spiritual barren and sense this in their own lives turn to Christ and receive the kingdom. That is all the resources of heaven are available to you. In the Lords prayer we have a concise sense of what the kingdom is when Jesus prays thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Gods will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That is the powers of heaven, the powers of the age to come, are available to you today. If you come to him as a sick and needy person, you will be healed. But you must come to him and that may be as you come to your brother or sister here and just spill your guts that you may find hope and healing.
