Matthew 5:3
Notes
Transcript
A Very Unusual List of Blessings
A Very Unusual List of Blessings
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Who wants to be...
Poor (lowly)
Sad
Meek
Hungry
Merciful
Persecuted
Nobody!
Everybody wants to be...
Rich
Proud
Self-reliant
Independent
Trouble-free
Unforgiving
Directly Opposite of Prosperity Gospel
Directly Opposite of Prosperity Gospel
The Prosperity Gospel teaches fame, popularity, wealth, health, and a care-free life.
That’s why so many are drawn to it. But it never delivers.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Look at the first Beatitude Matthew 5:3
What does Poor in Spirit mean?
What does Poor in Spirit mean?
A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew Matthew 5:3
True “blessedness” comes only as God’s Spirit is capable of leading the human spirit to trust absolutely in God.
Word Study - Poor
πτωχός
ROOT | ESV
πτωχος
ptōchas or penes
38
πτωχός
ptōchos
poor
Both mean poor in a general sense
34
πτωχεία
ptōcheia
Ptochas
poverty
3
πτωχεύω
Penes means poor in the sense that a person has to work to keep themselves going. They have no excess at all. Living check to check to stay afloat.
ptōcheuō
be poor; become poor
1
Ptochas means beggarly poor. It means that a person is so poor that they cannot work because of physical or mental limitations. It means that person is reduced to begging. They have no other means of providing for themselves but to beg.
The use here is definitely Ptochas.
is a great use of this word that will help us.
We will see why that matters in a little while.
Just Poor?
Just Poor?
Does this mean physical poverty = spiritual happiness?
Are poor people more spiritually happy than rich people?
If that was the case then rich would = cursed.
The Bible talks a lot about the poor and the rich.
The Bible speaks negatively about the rich in many cases because riches are a barrier to seeing our spiritual need. Riches can blind people to see their real need for Jesus because they have a temporary fix.
We saw this last Sunday morning. Riches can be blinding to our actual spiritual need.
Being poor isn’t a requirement to be happy or blessed.
Although the poor have a running start on the rich, because they are more likely to depend on God for what they need.
Being physically poor isn’t a requirement for spiritual happiness.
Poor Spirited?
Poor Spirited?
Does this mean that to be happy we must go around like eeyore? “Thanks for noticing me”.
Doesn’t mean poor-spirited. It doesn’t mean lazy, or unenthusiastic.
It doesn’t mean that we have low self-esteem.
By the way, Jesus wants us to have good self-esteem - but not based on who we are, but based on what Jesus has done FOR US!
The Opposite of “Poor in Spirit”
The Opposite of “Poor in Spirit”
I want to give you the definition for “poor in spirit”, but first I want to describe to you the opposite of this condition as the world call it.
Wretched are the spiritually self-sufficient, for theirs is the kingdom of hell. - Life Application Study Bible
The opposite:
Self-made men are the men who, under peculiar difficulties and without the ordinary helps of favoring circumstances, have attained knowledge, usefulness, power and position and have learned from themselves the best uses to which life can be put in this world, and in the exercises of these uses to build up worthy character. They are the men who owe little or nothing to birth, relationship, friendly surroundings; to wealth inherited or to early approved means of education; who are what they are, without the aid of any favoring conditions by which other men usually rise in the world and achieve great results.
This is what is congratulated by the world. This is what the world ascribes as “successful”. This is why this is such a stark difference between what God looks for vs. what man looks for.
The Definition of “Poor in Spirit”
The Definition of “Poor in Spirit”
“Poor in spirit,” as a virtue, must refer not to a poor quality of faith but to the acknowledgment of one’s spiritual powerlessness and bankruptcy apart from Christ (“Those who feel their spiritual need”).
So what does it mean?
So what does it mean?
Remember the word used for poor in this verse (ptochas) means to be so destitute that we have to BEG.
We aren’t just spiritually needy, we are spiritually BANKRUPT.
This goes totally against the Pharisee’s philosophy of earning their salvation.
You can’t earn it! You can’t do enough good works to earn God’s favor!
Listen to this hymn:
Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace:
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me, Savior, or I die.
Listen to these verses from the Bible where men spoke of themselves with regard to this...
Paul said this:
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
Moses said this about his inadequacy:
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
Exodus 3:
Isaiah said it like this:
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Isaiah 6
How about Job:
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.”
Peter:
But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
Also Paul in Romans:
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
The Best Illustration:
The Best Illustration:
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
v. 10 - Two totally different guys. The Pharisee would have been seen as righteous, the tax collector would have been seen as scum.
v.11-12 - This guy sounds pretty good to me doesn’t he to you? Sounds like a pretty upstanding guy.
v.13 - This is the purest definition of “poor in spirit”. “Would not even lift up his eyes.”
v.13 - “God, be merciful to me, a SINNER!”
Do you see any admission of sin from the Pharisee?
Do you see any sense of unworthiness from the Pharisee?
All I see is his “acts of self-righteousness”
v.13 - The tax collector knows he needs mercy. You only sense your need of mercy when you realize you have nothing to offer.
v.14 - End of and have in common?
Salvation. Heaven. Eternal Life.
The Pharisee was a strutter. You see one of these Tom turkeys doing their thing around the females, they strut around and dance and puff themselves up to make themselves look 5 times bigger than they really are. That’s the turkeys main goal is to make themselves look bigger to impress others. No different than the Pharisee in this story.
You can’t strut into the Kingdom of God!
Muhammad Ali, when he was in his prime, when he was really on top of the boxing world, got on an airplane and sat down. As soon as he sat down, a stewardess said, “Fasten your seatbelt please”, He said to her, “Superman don’t need no seat belt.” She responded quick as a flash, “Superman don’t need no airplane either - fasten your seatbelt sir.”
The Best Illustration of “Poor in Spirit”
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
God Requires COMPLETE Dependence!
God Requires COMPLETE Dependence!
We have to see ourselves as spiritually bankrupt, otherwise we will be tempted to think we can BE good enough.
“As the ship gets to the haven more by the benefit of the wind than the sail, so when a Christian makes swift progress, it is more by wind of God’s Spirit than the sail of his own endeavor.” - Thomas Watson
What we are referring to here is called “total depravity” in theological terms. It means we are totally sinful upon birth and unable to save ourselves in any way apart from trusting in Jesus as our Savior.
A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew Matthew 5:3
True “blessedness” comes only as God’s Spirit is capable of leading the human spirit to trust absolutely in God.
See why it matters that the word used here is ptochas instead of penes?
It’s not just that we are spiritually needy, we are spiritual beggars when we come to God.
The Gospel Message is that God does for us in the person of Christ what we could never do for ourselves on our own.
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
This is the greatest display of grace that we could ever know.
- While we were STILL sinners, Christ died for us.
- That means that we can’t clean ourselves up. We are helpless to lift ourselves up out of the mud of sin.
This is a perpetual condition
This is a perpetual condition
So are we just poor in spirit to get into the Kingdom of God? Are we just poor in spirit when we become a Christian? Is it a once type thing and then we grow out of it when we start growing as a Christian?
I would say in every way, that it gets more pronounced the longer we grow in grace.
The more spiritually mature we become, the more aware we are of our utter need of mercy, grace, and forgiveness.
This is the first of the Beatitudes and for good reason
This is the first of the Beatitudes and for good reason
It is not by accident that this is the first of the attitudes that a Christian ought to display.
We start with this attitude because all of the other Beatitudes flow from this one. All of the mourning over our sin, meekness, hungering for God, being merciful, being pure in heart, being a peacemaker, and being persecuted all come from this initial “poor in spirit” attitude.
There is a strong flavor of spiritual bankruptcy in all these other attitudes that we should display.
How does being poor in spirit cause us to be Blessed?
How does being poor in spirit cause us to be Blessed?
You see your identity in what Christ did for you on the Cross.
Water, M. (2000). The new encyclopedia of Christian quotations (p. 733). Alresford, Hampshire: John Hunt Publishers Ltd.
The world says look at your house, your car, your wife, your kids, your job, your appearance to see your identity.
If we do, and we lose one of those, our identity goes with it.
Not so if our identity is found in Christ!
The Christian NEVER finds their identity from anything in this World. Nothing in this world defines who you are. You were made in the image of God ()! The things of the world don’t define you! God defines you!
You see your sense of worth coming totally from your identity in Christ.
You can find your greatest sense of worth coming from what Jesus has done for you, not what you can do for yourself.
This is liberating! To know that everything that is good in me comes from God!
You are aware of your sinfulness, yet SO THANKFUL FOR GRACE!
God, be merciful to me, a sinner!
You give God all the credit, because it belongs to HIM.
You are more willing to forgive others, because you have been forgiven SO MUCH!
Our truest form of happiness is found in Christ. It is in Christ that we find all that our soul longs for and needs to be satisfied
Who gets into Heaven? The Poor in Spirit
Who gets into Heaven? The Poor in Spirit
2 All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things came to be,
declares the Lord.
But this is the one to whom I will look:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word.
Isaiah 66:
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
This is the greatest display of grace that we could ever know.
- While we were STILL sinners, Christ died for us.
- That means that we can’t clean ourselves up. We are helpless to lift ourselves up out of the mud of sin.
-
HEAVEN!!!
Question: When you come face to face with the
Question: When you come face to face with the
When you come face to face with the perfect holiness of God, you don’t have any choice but to be HUMBLE.
When you come face to face with the perfect holiness of God, you don’t have any choice but to be HUMBLE.