RAGS TO RICHES: What it means to be Poor in Spirit; Build your Life pt. 3, the 1st Beatitude

INTRO: Do you like a good rags-to-riches story? A story where a person rises from poverty to wealth, or from obscurity to celebrity, sometimes instantly. (real life stories- Oprah, Dolly Parton, Andre Carnegie)

Why do we love rags to riches stories? I think we love them because they are stories about role reversals. At the beginning, the character is clearly at the bottom of society, they are unhappy, but hard workers. They are raised up, or elevated to a better situation, but then a crisis comes, and it seems like they may lose it all. They persist through the problem and learn valuable lessons through it. Finally, the character gets the life they wished for, but it may not match the one they always dreamed of.

Annie is a classic example of a rags-to-riches story. Annie lives in an orphanage where she is forced to work hard cleaning the building, but she dreams of being reunited with her parents. A rich man, Oliver Warbucks (Daddy Warbucks), is kind of a foster parent. He grows fond of Annie & wants to adopt her, but she holds out hope of finding her parents. Warbucks offers a hefty reward to find Annie’s parents. Two con artists pretend to be her parents for the reward & Annie is kidnapped by them. It’s discovered that Annie’s real parents died in a fire, she is rescued from the con artists, & finally adopted by rich Daddy Warbucks.

What draws us into a story like that?We all have a little orphan Annie within us, we dream of something greater, but we understand the total lack of our ability to get it for ourselves, and we are humbled. This is the image we get from the 1st beatitude. Matthew 5:3, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

What do we need to know about the poor in spirit?

God LOVES the Poor.

We cannot ignore the OBVIOUS- Poor means Poor. In Luke’s account of this sermon, this beatitude reads “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20). Talk about a rags-to-riches story! The poor possess the kingdom of God?! How is that? The Bible has a lot to say about God’s concern for the poor (law, prophets, psalms).

One of the greatest love stories ever written is about a poor, immigrant, widow woman. She met & married a man whose parents had emigrated to her country for a lack of food. Then her father-in-law died, her brother-in-law died, & her husband died. Her sister-in-law went back home, but this special lady stayed with her mother-in-law and followed her back to her home country. They were two poor & destitute widow women, who had no means of support. Their lifeline was a law that allowed them to pick up the leftovers in a person’s field. So, this lady went to glean in the field of a rich man. She caught his eye, he captured her heart, they got married & had a son. Their great-grandson was King David, who had a descendant named Jesus. The story of Ruth & Boaz.

Boaz was following God’s law for the poor- to leave the corners of their fields unharvested so that the poor could glean there for food. Ruth was a poor, beggarly, foreign widow woman, loved & protected by God.

Exodus 22:21-27, gives a list of vulnerable people that Israel was to care for- strangers, widows, orphans, & the poor. Ruth checks the boxes on 3 out of 4 of the most vulnerable people. The poor (ani) are those without property, wretched, or needy, a class of people without possessions or wealth. Deuteronomy 15:11, “For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.”

The poor have a special in God’s heart. They are often looked down on & mistreated, but God upholds their cause. Psalm 37:14–15, The wicked have drawn the sword and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to slay those who are of upright conduct. 15 Their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. Psalm 69:33, For the Lord hears the poor, & does not despise His prisoners.

When Israel did not do what they were supposed to for the poor, they were judged for it. Several of the prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, esp. Amos) indicted Israel for their sins against the poor.

So, we cannot ignore the obvious- the poor have a special place in God’s heart. But we must not overlook what is explicit. Jesus is talking about the poor in spirit, which means not only that God loves the poor in a special way, but Jesus came for those who are poor in a different way. Being poor will not save you, only Jesus can save you.

Jesus CAME for the Poor.

When Mary, the mother of Jesus found out she was pregnant with God’s Son, she sang a song- Luke 1:46–55, And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. 48 For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed...

51He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 52 He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things, And the rich He has sent away empty. 54 He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, 55 As He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and to his seed forever.”

You have to remember the state of the Jewish people when Jesus came. They were slaves once again, this time to Rome. Prior to Rome, it was Greece, Persia, & Babylon. God’s chosen people had become the poor, pitiful ones of earth. Jesus, to save them & us, became poor too.

You may have never thought about what Jesus, the eternal Son of God, voluntarily gave up to become human- disrobing Himself of His Deity, taking upon Himself the cloak of Humanity, coming in the likeness of men, humbling Himself to death, even the death of the cross.

2 Corinthians 8:9, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

Jesus became poor, He came for the poor, He preached to the poor, but it’s the ones who are poor in spirit that understand what Jesus did.

“Poor in spirit” describes two kinds of poverty. 1st, A Poverty of Ability: there is a social aspect to this impoverishment, a lack of material necessities. You may have nothing at all in the material sense, but still think you must do something to earn your way into the kingdom. This saying shows us there is nothing we can do, to be poor in spirit is a state of being- a lack of ability to do anything to gain eternal life.

2nd, A Poverty of Abundance: You may be the reverse of socially & materially poor, you may be rich & have it all. You must understand that earthly riches cannot purchase you a place in the kingdom of heaven.

1 Tim 6:17, Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.

To be poor in spirit is to humbly recognize your lack- the poverty of your ability & of your abundance, not trusting in your situation as either poor or rich but trusting in Jesus Christ alone for the gift of eternal life. This promise is made only to those who are poor in spirit- theirs is the kingdom of heaven!

The Kingdom is MADE for the Poor.

To say that the poor in spirit possess the kingdom of heaven is to say that it is both their present reality & future promise. There is a place for the poor in spirit, if not on earth, then in the kingdom of heaven.

The “kingdom of heaven” has been used in Matthew already and will continue to be used to describe the reign of Christ, both in the present and the future. John came preaching “repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” after John was put in prison, Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom (e.g., SOM). 9 times Jesus talks about the “kingdom of heaven” in the SOM. 55 times in the book of Matthew!

Throughout Matthew Jesus preaches that the “kingdom of heaven is at hand.” In parables, He illustrates what the kingdom of heaven is like. By His power, He demonstrates that the kingdom of heaven has come. In Matthew 12:28 he explains, “if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

He explains who can be in the kingdom- Matthew 18:3, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” What does He mean by becoming like little children? He means you must be humble like a child.

That example is the spirit behind “being poor in spirit,” a recognition of your total lack of ability & abundance to do anything to inherit eternal life. The only thing you can do is bow to the King, & when you do that, you belong to the Kingdom. Matthew 25:34, Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Heaven is a Reality for you because Christ Rules over you.

Matthew is presenting Jesus as the King of the Jews, the King who establishes a kingdom through His words & deeds, & the King who is delivering His royal decrees to His people.This beatitude teaches us the topsy-turvy nature of the Kingdom of God- we usually think of blessing as material; that it is wealth, possessions, prosperity, abundance; & that when we have these things we can say “we are blessed.”

Jesus is saying quite the opposite: you are blessed (happy, fortunate) even when you don’t have these material things, & even more, when you realize you don’t have anything spiritual to bring either.

John Piper describes this 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…

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.”

The ones who are blessed are those who humbly realize their spiritual poverty before God- their complete inability to DO or BE or BUY their way into the kingdom.

Whenever & wherever we find ourselves in a lowly position, whether by humility within or humiliation without, there is the King, & there is the Kingdom. For those who are poor in spirit, the Kingdom of Heaven is a present reality. James 2:5, Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

Are you poor in spirit? Have you realized your lowly spiritual state before God? We are all sinners, spiritually bankrupt, impoverished before God. There is nothing we can contribute to our salvation except the sin that Jesus came to save us from.

Do you need to be saved?