The Poor and Mourning

Good morning, welcome to NHCC. Please open your Bible to Matthew 5.

Why this sermon series?

Life has always been difficult.

To keep in proper perspective, life for a faithful follower of Christ today in the USA is far easier than most other times in world history.

In addition, being a human being in the USA seems to be far easier than most other times in world history.

That being said, lets not discount what is actually difficult in this life.

Number one, from my perspective at least, how am I to live in such a world? How should I relate to God? How should I relate to others?

Five weeks in which we seek to answer such questions.

Not always giving specific behaviors, but instead by observing how Jesus says we ought to think and live as a result.

Read Matthew 5:1–4- “Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.’”

Pray.

We find ourselves in the Sermon on the Mount.

Thus far in Matthew’s Gospel- Chapters 1-2- Nativity Story, 3- Introduction of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus, 4- Temptation of Jesus, beginning of His ministry, calling His disciples, general statement of his teaching and ministering.

1. What are the beatitudes?

In the first 12 verses of Matthew 5, Jesus lays out a formula that is restated with different words repeatedly.

Blessed are the blank, for blank.

A series of characteristics of a person which cause that person to be blessed in life, and then a description of how that blessing is realized.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Characteristic- poor in spirit; poverty of spirit brings about blessing; the blessing is realized in their being a part of and possessing the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Characteristic= those who mourn; the act of mourning brings about blessing; the blessing is realized in being comforted.

Let’s take a quick moment to answer the question that many of us might be asking.

Take just today’s verses for example- blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn. Are these truthful statements?

All depends on what we mean by the word- blessed.

For many in our own context, we think of blessing in terms of physical realities. Things we can touch, hold.

We are blessed with wealth and possessions, having an abundance of stuff that we never have to worry about running out.

Or we are blessed with family and friends, conversations, that which keeps loneliness at bay.

Or we are blessed with healthy bodies.

None of those make sense in the context of what Jesus is saying.

Instead, blessed (makarios) means full, or complete, or whole, or happy.

The way Jesus uses it- new outlook on life and all that it presents to us.

Matthew 16:15–17 “He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.’”

Why is Peter blessed? Because he sees differently than he has before. His understanding of this life has grown and expanded. This is his blessing.

Here is why this is interesting.

Many consider the beatitudes to be characteristics of super Christians.

If we rightly understand these 12 verses, we begin to realize Jesus is talking to His followers about what life following Him will look like.

These are simply words that describe how followers of Jesus engage with God, and as a result how we engage with the world.

Further, these qualities are contrasted against the qualities and characteristics that are championed by the world and society surrounding us.

Stated differently, none of these qualities come naturally.

A difficult point of distinction. For many in the church, our desire is to look at the world and do what they are doing but better and more meaningfully.

Jesus gives a different path. Be completely different from the world around you. The characteristics to which you are called to live are not naturally lived, they are instead spiritually given.

We begin, then, with a very difficult but telling question- Do I desire to live according to the beatitudes?

2. Where does the Christian faith begin?

Jesus begins with a characteristic that describes the beginning of the Christian faith.

At the very core of the Christian faith, the one trait that all Christians, or followers of Jesus possess, is that of being poor in spirit.

What exactly is meant by poverty of spirit?

Not physical poverty.

Instead, it is being brought to a sense of our sins.

Seeing no righteousness within ourselves.

Not simply seeing some faults in ourselves.

Here is why- We believe ourselves to be something that we can fix on our own.

Instead, we see our poverty of spirit when we come face to face with the One True God.

Not God as we would like Him to be, but the reality of who God is as revealed to us in Scripture.

Finding that we have a need for something completely outside of ourselves, namely Jesus, and pursuing Him with all that we have.

Luke 18:9-14- Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

Here is an interesting puzzle. In order to be blessed, or filled, we must first be emptied of something.

Of what must we be emptied? Ourselves.

Thomas Watson- “Till we are poor in spirit we are not capable of receiving grace. He who is swollen with an opinion of self-excellency and self-sufficiency is not fit for Christ. He is full already. If the hand be full of pebbles, it cannot receive gold.”

How do we know if we are poor in spirit?

We find that we are weaned from ourselves.

Everyone obsesses over themselves at first. All we know how to care about is who we are and what we want.

But we are meant to grow out of such self-focus.

Throughout history, we always had somewhere to grow into. Focus came off of self and onto something or someone else.

Picking a career- What was needed from you? From your family? From your church? From your Community?

Now the question asked- What do you want to do? What you do you like? What gives you purpose?

Jesus gives us a new focus- What does Christ seek from you in all of life?

Rather than admiring ourselves, we admire Christ.

Admiring Christ means taking in as much of Him as possible.

Kids finding a new song that they admire, or enjoy.

We admire Christ as He is.

This is crucial- We accept Christ as He has revealed Himself, not as we would like Him to be.

We become exalters of free grace.

We proclaim the goodness of God.

We give with complete grace and generosity.

We are not stingy with anything that we have.

The wonderful promise- Those who are emptied of themselves are given the Kingdom of God.

We belong to another world entirely. This is what allows us to live upside down.

3. What is the proper response to spiritual poverty?

This is where things get interesting.

Once we recognize our spiritual poverty, we must respond in some way.

Lacking leads to mourning. This is the very way of life.

Remember, these characteristics are contrary to the world. So how would the world tell us to respond to our spiritual poverty?

Ignore it.

Set your mind on what you enjoy instead.

Pick ourselves up.

Put on a happy face.

Often, such a mentality has crept into the church as well. Worship must always be upbeat and happy.

Jesus gives us a different response, and it is one that is hated by our world.

Mourn your sin. Feel shame for your sin. See a need for forgiveness.

Forgive us our debts.

Mourning leads us to the mercy of God rather than the increase of our own efforts.

The one who mourns over his sin will be comforted.

What is the only possible comfort? Forgiveness.

Really rough nights with the kids. When they know they’ve done wrong and weep over it. They are comforted in the arms of their parents.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones- “For it is when a man sees himself in this unutterable hopelessness that the Holy Spirit reveals unto him the Lord Jesus Christ as his perfect satisfaction. Through the Spirit he sees that Christ has died for his sins and is standing as his advocate in the presence of God. He sees in Him the perfect provision that God has made and is immediately comforted. That is the astounding thing about the Christian life. Your great sorrow leads to joy, and without the sorrow there is no joy.”

Here is the beginning of the Christian faith- We see ourselves as lacking righteousness, empty, and we contemplate such a situation. We mourn and grieve over our sinful state. And we pursue Jesus entirely as a result.

4. How do I begin this process?

Set yourself to scale.

Looking at a picture of something and believing it to be gigantic, but then you see something next to it that shows its scale, a penny or paperclip.

We often find ourselves to be large, so we like to speak highly of ourselves, show ourselves off to others.

We need something to come in and set us to scale. We need comparison.

For many, we compare ourselves to those around us. As a result, we see minor changes that need to be made.

Instead, Jesus is given as the object which shows scale.

One of the most important steps for anyone to love and honor and worship Jesus rightly is to stack ourselves up next to Him.

We see our lack and look to Jesus for what is needed.