Blessed Life

When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Have you ever imagined what a perfect world would be like? What would be in that world? What would not be in that world? How would the people be in that world?

In 1992, USA produced the first Dream Team in basketball for the olympics. It was a reaction to other countries that were using professional athletes to win gold in the olympics. They had Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Scotty Pippen and Micheal Jordan. As you can imagine, they did not just win, they spanked those other counties like they were red-headed-step-children! It was amazing!

I am sure, that if we could plan our world, we too would have only winners in it. This perfect world that we could imagine would be the best of the best. Jesus gives a description of what a disciple is and while He mentions the best of the best, His standards probably do not line up with our standards. Jesus describes in this sermon the standard of one of His disciples.

Today we are going to make some observations in the text and apply it to our lives. There are not really three points, but rather three observations.

Jesus looked v. 1

“Saw” or “looking” (Aor. Act. Part.) describes an action that Jesus is doing. “Looking” described Jesus’ actions in chapter four as He “looked” for disciples to follow Him. Now, Jesus is looking again, and what He sees is a multitude of people who he has been “teaching, preaching the kingdom of heaven, and healing” (Matt. 4:23). Jesus identifies their need, and based on what He saw, Jesus moved and acted accordingly.

Jesus departs from the crowd

Verse 1 says that Jesus “went up on the mountain.” It has the idea of separating from the crowd because the disciples approach Jesus. But there is a typological image of Moses, as Moses went up the mountain to converse with God. The type is that the disciples go up with Jesus to receive instruction as did Moses. Moses, when he went up the mountain, he could only restate the Word of God. In contrast, Jesus the “New Moses” can speak for Himself. He makes comments like, “you have heard, but I say.” Jesus is much better than Moses.

Jesus teaches

Jesus has the opportunity to do many things, however, his ministry is characterized by teaching and proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus is teaching, proclaiming and healing. Jesus looks at the multitude and determines that what they need is not material things. Jesus identifies their need as being a lack of information. Jesus’ disciples needed to know what it means to be a disciple.

Jesus is still looking

Sometimes we go through difficult situations. And if we are honest, what we want is for God to arrive on the scene and give a solution to our problem. There are times when God does that, for example with Müller who had an orphanage. The story is that they did not have milk for breakfast. Müller prays and a milk man, unable to deliver the milk, gives it to Müller and the children have breakfast. God is powerful and sovereign and many times He comes down into our difficulties and rescues us. But other times, God does not act as we wish. We need to remember that God is working in our lives to conform us to the image of Christ. God is working for His glory and our good. Many times, God uses difficulties in our life to teach us lessons to make us more like Christ. God is not absent, but rather He is working for His glory and our good.

Jesus sat down v. 2

Sitting down describes the action that Jesus is doing. The type “A” personalities are having a difficult time understanding what Jesus is doing sitting down. But Jesus takes time with His disciples. “Sitting down” is not only describing His action but it is also describing His authority. Teachers would sit to teach. Jesus is declaring His authority by sitting down to teach and it is demonstrated in two ways:

His Disciples

We see that the disciples are Jesus’ disciples. They are not students in general. Eventually, we know from Matt. 7:28-29 that others join to hear Jesus. While many might come to hear Jesus we know it is the true disciple that will stay and listen. In John 6, Jesus taught in the synagogue that those who wanted to have eternal life needed to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Upon hearing these hard sayings of Jesus, many left. There are always going to be those who hang around but His disciples will be close by. This does not mean that they will not fail from time to time. At the cross, only John was at the foot of the cross. Peter denied Jesus, those scattered. But His disciples went out in Acts two sharing the Gospel. Most of them eventually were put to death for their testimony of Christ.

His disciples came near to Him

Jesus called them at the beginning, but now they are the ones that are coming to Him. Jesus sits and where the Master sits, they go to Him. Can you imagine a scenario where Jesus sits down, but one of His disciples thinks that another area is much better than where Jesus sat down. The disciple, assured that his spot is much better than that of Jesus’ waits because he knows that Jesus will soon realize that the disciple had better wisdom than He. What a terrible scene. We could not imagine it.

The disciples are submissive to Jesus, they recognize Jesus’ authority and they come to Him. Do you go where God goes? Or do you have your agenda? Are you getting onboard with God? Or are you waiting that God realize how wise you are?

Jesus taught v. 3

Blessed

Means to be privileged, or fortunate, happy because of a circumstance, or favored (BDAG 2001, 611). This idea of “blessed” appears in other passages of Scripture. Probably, the most popular is Psalm 1 where the man who does not walk or stand or sit with sinners but rather, delights in God and His Word.

Poor in Spirit

Isaiah 66:1-2

We tend not to associate privileged with poor anything. But Jesus associates a fortunate person with someone who is poor in Spirit. Jesus is not the first to associate these two, rather Isa. 66.2 the prophet says “

But to this one I will look,

To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Is 66:2.

Verse one describes God seated in the heavens and the earth as a footstool. This great God looks on the “humble.” The “humble” are those who are poor. God looks on those who are humble towards Him. While this sounds easy, the condition of the human hearts is in arrogance and defiance towards God.

“Hacking” is a computer term that means to break-in to a computer or software where the person is not supposed to have access. From that term, another term is very popular and it is “Life hack” where one finds tricks and solutions to life to make life a little easier. Our hearts are constantly trying to make this world work apart from God. Deut. 6:4-9 God tells Israel that they are supposed to love God with all their heart. However, if they did not obey, God would cause draught (Deut. 11.17) Israel disobeyed God over and over and God caused draught. Rather than repenting and turning to God, they turned to Baal, the god who could make it rain. They were trying a life hack, trying to work their way around God.

The person that is poor in spirit is the one who declares like Peter did in John 6:68

“Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.”

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Jn 6:68.

Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven

Jesus does not say that “one day they will have the kingdom of heaven.” Rather, those who are humble have right now the kingdom of heaven.

Conclusion

Are you a blessed person? That will depend if you are poor in spirit.

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