Poor in Spirit and Mourning

· I got to thinking about how much of Jesus’ teaching took place outside. And of course, His most well-known teaching is called the Sermon on the Mount. So, I thought I would tap into that and for the next few weeks, and call it the Sermon on the Parking Lot.

· Actually, I think it’s a pretty good launching point for us as we begin to regather because in so many ways, we are starting new. And without a doubt, Jesus was starting something new, and the Sermon on the Mount was the real beginning of Jesus expressing that a new way of thinking was coming to those who were listening.

· The old way had served its purpose and its time. But now they were going to have to start thinking differently about their interaction with God and how to relate to him and each other.

· And the Sermon on the Mount is where that teaching began to come into focus.

· This was massively important to Jesus’ disciples, to those in the crowd that day, and it’s just as important for us to hear with the same sense of anticipation.

· Before we jump into it, let me give you a little perspective and a little background.

· It seems like every successive generation tends to think that the world and the ways their parents gave them are either a little messed up or a lot messed up. And they want to establish their own identity and their own world. But in almost every generation, in spite of what they say they are seeking to replace, they almost always declare that what they really want is meaning, love, authenticity…they want real. And they go about trying to find it. The problem is that they are looking in all the wrong places…because where they should be looking for those things is the church…and they’re not looking there.

· Far too often what they see in the church is not a new way of living that embodies their ideals, but another version of the old ways which they have dismissed and want to break away from. And one phrase reveals the truth of that reality and at the same time is one of the worst things that any Christian can hear. That phrase is…. “You’re no different than anybody else.”

· The reason that is so detrimental is that the basic theme of the Bible from beginning to end is that God’s historical purpose is to call out a people for himself. This people is a “holy” people, set apart from the world to belong to him and to obey him.

· All of this is essential background to the Sermon on the Mount. It describes what human life and human community look like when they come under the gracious new rule of God. And what do they look like when they do? DIFFERENT!

· The Sermon on the Mount is probably the best-known part of the teaching of Jesus. It may also be the least understood and is almost certainly the least obeyed. It is Jesus’ own description of what he wanted his followers to be and to do.

· It is Jesus defining the Christian value-system and it is totally at odds with the world’s value system, but it is also everything that each generation says they are seeking.

· So there is hope and conviction in what we are about to walk through. There is hope because if Christians live according to the teaching of Jesus in this sermon, then the church becomes the very thing that people not only need, but are looking for.

· There is conviction because we see how far we still have to go to become the disciples that Jesus is calling us to become.

SERMON ON THE MOUNT…. BE(Attitudes)

· The Sermon on the Mount covers three chapter, Matthew 5-7. And it starts with a small section that we call the Beatitudes.

· Beatitude actually means to be blessed, or happy, or blissful. The Bible doesn’t call this group of verses the beatitudes, but it has become known as that because Jesus starts each statement with the word “blessed”

· So the technical definition of beatitude is blessed, but I want to use a play on words to help us understand that these qualities, and character traits, and ways of thinking and perceiving, are, in fact, who and what we are supposed to BE…and if we approach these with the right ATTITUDE, then we will be in a good position to allow the necessary internal transformation to begin to take place.

· So, with that said, let’s jump into the BE(Attitudes)

· Vs 3 - “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

o Right at the beginning of his sermon, Jesus contradicted all the human expectations of the kingdom of God. Jesus says that the kingdom is given to the poor, not the rich…not the strong…not to the soldiers who can fight for it

o When Jesus uses the word “blessed” here, he’s not really talking about these people being happy. Some translations use that term and do a disservice to the word. What he means here is that since this is the kind of attitude and world view he is looking for in his followers, that he takes pleasure in those who will allow themselves to think and live this way, and as such, they are blessed by God…maybe not externally, which would lead to our idea of happy… but internally.

o And that’s an important distinction…especially in this first beatitude. The Old Testament helps put this in some perspective. At first, to be poor meant to be in literal, material need. But gradually, because the needy had no refuge but God, poverty began to have a more spiritual meaning instead.

o To be poor in spirit is to acknowledge our spiritual bankruptcy before God.

o We are all sinners, under the holy wrath of God and deserving of nothing but his judgment. We have nothing to offer, nothing to plead or bargain with, nothing with which to buy the favor of heaven.

o The poor man in the OT is one who is both afflicted and unable to save himself, and who therefore looks to God for salvation, while recognizing that he has no claim upon God to demand or expect his help. This is what it truly means to be poor in spirit. It is not to be beaten down and an Eeyore…it’s about recognizing our complete and utter lack of anything to offer God on our own, and as a result, acting on that truth.

o Revelation 3:17-18 - 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

o This church in Laodecia was like so many of our own today. In spite of its Christian profession, it was not truly Christian at all. It was full of self-satisfied, and superficial people who thought they were awesome. But as far as Jesus was concerned, it was full of blind and naked beggars. But the tragedy was that they would not admit it. They were not poor in spirit, they were rich in spirit, and it was a barrier between them and God.

o It also was NOT a place that people could go to find love, meaning and authenticity. Both of these are HUGE problems.

o The non-negotiable condition of receiving the kingdom of God is to acknowledge our spiritual poverty. The kingdom of God is given to the poor in spirit, and ONLY the poor in spirit that can acknowledge such and receive God’s free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.

· Vs 4 - Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

o So Jesus moves from the pronouncement about the poor in spirit to one of every one’s favorite subjects….mourning! NO? Not your favorite subject? Truth is, is not the favorite subject of anyone I know except maybe funeral home directors.

o Most Christians seem to think that if we know Jesus, we’re supposed to always walk around with this cheesy grin on our face and act like nothing bad or wrong has ever happened in our life.

o The truth is though that the Christian life is not all sunshine and butterflies. There are such things as Christian tears and too few of us ever weep them. But this second beatitude teaches us that sorrow can be the source of blessing.

o And for most of us, our natural inclination as we read this is to think of the times we have suffered the loss of someone we love and that God will be there to comfort us in our loss.

o I certainly believe that’s true. But it’s also not the point of this verse.

o Let’s remember the previous verse where we are taught to recognize our spiritual poverty.

o It is one thing to see it and recognize it. It is another thing to grieve it and mourn over it. Another way of saying this is that confession is one thing, contrition is another.

o In this verse, Jesus promises comfort, not to those who have lost a loved one, but to those who mourn their sin, the loss of their self-righteousness, their self-respect. It is not the sorrow of a death, it is the sorrow of repentance.

o As Christians who make much of grace…as we should…we also sometimes take sin far too lightly. There is not enough sorrow for sin among us. Most of us who are known as Christians are living an outwardly respectable life, but have a lot of difficulty in admitting the sin that is in us and unseen.

o But Jesus teaches us here that if we will allow ourselves to grieve and mourn our own sinfulness, then we can and will be comforted by the free grace that is offered through Jesus.

o He will pour oil into our wounds and speak peace to our sore, and scarred conscience. And there is no greater comfort than that.