Blessed are You Who are Poor, But Woe to You Who are Rich

Luke 6:20–26 NKJV

20 Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: “Blessed are you poor, For yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who hunger now, For you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, For you shall laugh. 22 Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake. 23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets. 24 “But woe to you who are rich, For you have received your consolation. 25 Woe to you who are full, For you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, For you shall mourn and weep. 26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets.

Jesus, having come down from the mountain with the 12 found a multitude had gathered from Judea, Jerusalem, and all the way from Tyre and Sidon on the coast. We saw, a couple of weeks ago, that they came out for three main reasons.

To Hear Him

To be Healed of Their Diseases

To Be Delivered From Unclean Spirits

And we were told that Jesus healed them all.

The primary healing that we need is to be healed of our sin but all of these things are a consequence of sin. We need healing of the body and deliverance from demons but more than anything we need forgiveness of our sins. Jesus die on the cross to stomp the head of the serpent and destroy source of our problem, sin.

1 Peter 2:21–25 NKJV

21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: 22 “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; 23 who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; 24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Unfortunately we seem to see the symptoms far better than the primary issue. And if we find that we have few symptoms then we may foolishly believe that there is no problem for which we need healing.

This is what Jesus is addressing in this first part of his sermon.

Four blessings followed by four corresponding woes.

These four blessings and woes would have been just as shocking to this multitude as they are to modern readers. They are the exact opposite of what mankind has believed since the beginning.

The world says you are blessed if you are rich, full, happy, and popular. But Jesus says that you are blessed if you are poor, hungry, sad and hated.

Today we will focus on the first beatitude,

Blessed are the Poor

The word “blessed” used here means supremely blest, fortunate, well off, or happy.

When we see a truely poor person the idea that they are fortunate, or supremely blest, well off or happy is not the first thing that comes to mind. We would perhaps think of poverty as a curse, a burden, unfortunate. We pity the poor. Perhaps you’ve been to third world countries where poverty is prevalent. When we go to these sort of places we may think it’s a pity that they don’t have the things that we have. But Jesus tells us that they are the ones who are fortunate, they are the blessed ones. Why is that?

In Matt 5:3

Matthew 5:3 NKJV

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

But Luke quite clearly says blessed are the poor and the correlating verse says woe to those who are rich.

How are the Poor blessed?

They have a heightened awareness of their need.

Both spiritual poverty and physical poverty are results of sin. Sometimes we don’t feel our spiritual poverty so much but we certainly feel physical poverty. So if physical poverty helps you to see you spiritual poverty then it is truely a blessing.

Poverty is humbling

James 4:6–10 NKJV

6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” 7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Humility comes much more difficultly for the rich than for the poor. If poverty helps you to humble yourself then it is a blessing.

A poor person is not as likely to be in love with this world.

James 4:4 NKJV

4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

1 John 2:15–17 NKJV

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

I poverty helps you to not love this world and the things in this world and if poverty humbles you and if poverty helps you to realise your spiritual need so that repent and accept the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for your sins then yours is the kingdom of God.

You may be poor now for a short while but you are a joint heir with Christ and you will share in the inheritance of the kingdom for all eternity. So you are fortunate to be poor. You are are blessed.

But Woe to You Who are Rich

For all the reasons that a poor person is blessed a rich person has obstacles.

A rich person will not so easily see their spiritual poverty.

A rich person will struggle more with pride

and a rich person will find it easier to love this world and the things of this world.

Revelation 3:15–18 NKJV

15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

Mark 10:23–27 NKJV

23 Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?” 27 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”

It is difficult even imposable for a rich person to humble themselves acknowledge their sin and repent. But with God all things are possible. the rich is not without hope but woe to the rich. Let the rich take heed that they do not trust in their riches. The love of money is the root of all evil.

Jesus last words to the Laodiceans were

Revelation 3:19–22 NKJV

19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’ ”