Blessed are the Humble

Blessedness in Disguise

Matthew 5.1-3

The first sermon ever preached and recorded by Jesus is the Sermon on the Mount. Its initial theme? Happiness and fulfillment! Interested in knowing the secrets?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer based his classic book The Cost of Discipleship on an exposition of the Sermon on the Mount. Even unbelievers like Gandhi were greatly impressed and impacted by the message of the Sermon on the Mount. Other unbelievers have also been impacted. Nikita Krushchev, several years ago while in the United States, said, “I’ll tell you what the difference between Christians and me is, and that is if you slap me on the face, I’ll hit you back so hard your head will fall off.” He was impacted by the Sermon on the Mount. He knew what it said, and he didn’t like it at all. The truth is that the natural man does not like its message. This is not the message one would take to write a best selling book—even a Christian book.
R. Kent Hughes, in his excellent commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, says this is the greatest sermon ever preached:

· The Sermon on the Mount is the compacted, congealed theology of Christ and as such is perhaps the most profound section of the entire New Testament and the whole Bible. Every phrase can bare exhaustive exposition and yet never be completely plumbed…. It shows us exactly where we stand in relation to the kingdom and eternal life. As we expose ourselves to the X-rays of Christ’s words, we see whether we truly are believers; and if believers, the degree of the authenticity of our lives. No other section of Scripture makes us face ourselves like the Sermon on the Mount.

“Blessed” means happy, fortunate, blissful; “happy,” just because of the meaning we give to it today, is probably not the best word; after all, those who mourn are not really happy.

· These are those who are to be congratulated (because of God’s response to their situation/ behavior); someone whose place in life is an enviable one, not w/ reference to someone’s mental state, but because of a condition of life.

· These are those upon which God has expressed His approval.

Homer used the word to describe a wealthy man, and Plato used it of one who is successful in business.
The fullest meaning of the term, therefore, had to do with an inward contentedness that is not affected by circumstances. That is the kind of happiness God desires for His children, a state of joy and well-being that does not depend on physical, temporary circumstances (Phil. 4:11–13).
Blessedness is a characteristic of God, and it can be a characteristic of men only as they share in the nature of God. There is no blessedness, no perfect contentedness and joy of the sort of which Jesus speaks here, except that which comes from a personal relationship to Him.
Jesus is speaking of a reality that is only for believers. To be blessed is not a superficial feeling of well-being based on circumstance, but a deep supernatural experience of contentedness based on the fact that one’s life is right with God.
The Beatitudes seem paradoxical. The conditions and their corresponding blessings do not seem to match. By normal human standards such things as humility, mourning, and persecution are not the stuff of which happiness is made. As one commentator has observed, it is much as if Jesus went into the great display window of life and changed all the price tags.
The world says, “Happy are the rich, the noble, the successful, the macho, the glamorous, the popular, the famous, the aggressive.” But the message from the King does not fit the world’s standards, because His kingdom is not of this world but of heaven. His way to happiness, which is the only way to true happiness, is by a much different route.
The philosophy of the world: things satisfy. Acquiring things brings happiness, achieving things brings meaning, doing things brings satisfaction.
Solomon, the wisest and most magnificent of ancient kings, tried the world’s way to happiness for many years. He had the royal blood of his father, David, coursing through his veins. He had vast amounts of gold and jewels and “made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem” (1 Kings 10:27). He had fleets of ships and stables filled with thousands of the finest horses. He had hundreds of wives, gathered from the most beautiful women of many lands. He ate the most sumptuous of foods on the finest of tableware in the most elegant of palaces with the most distinguished people. He was acclaimed throughout the world for his wisdom, power, and wealth. Solomon should have been immeasurably happy. Yet that king, so great and blessed by earthly standards, concluded that his life was purposeless and empty. The theme of Ecclesiastes, Solomon’s personal testimony on the human situation, is “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun?” (1:2–3).
Jesus came to announce that the tree of happiness cannot grow in a cursed earth. Earthly things cannot bring even lasting earthly happiness, much less eternal happiness.
Lk 12:15 And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”NKJV
Tragically, many preachers, teachers, and writers today “who must be silenced” (Titus 1:11) are passing off worldly philosophy in the name of Christianity-claiming that faithfulness to Christ guarantees health, wealth, success, prestige, and prosperity. But Jesus taught no such thing. What He taught was nearer the opposite. He warned that physical, worldly advantages most often limit true happiness. The things of the world become fuel for pride, lust, and self-satisfaction-the enemies not only of righteousness but of happiness. “The worry of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful,” Jesus said (Matt. 13:22).
To expect happiness from the things of this world is like seeking the living among the dead.
The “beatitudes” are not requirements, but realities; not pre-requisites, but pronouncements of truth.
Martin-Lloyd Jones:
All Christians are to be like this. These verses describe what every believer is supposed to be like. These descriptions are not reserved for a select few, for the “super-spiritual.”
All Christians are meant to manifest all these characteristics. To think that some in the church will manifest 2-3 of these and others will manifest 2-3 others. Unlike spiritual gift, which are sovereignly given by the Lord as He deems best, all the beatitudes are to be manifested in all believers.
None of these descriptions describes a natural tendency. Each of them, when properly understood, is a disposition that is produced by grace and the operation of the Holy Spirit.

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit—the Humble (3)

Poor is from a verb meaning “to shrink, cower, or cringe,” as beggars often did in that day. Classical Greek used the word to refer to a person reduced to total destitution, who crouched in a corner begging. As he held out one hand for alms he often hid his face with the other hand, because he was ashamed of being recognized. The term did not mean simply poor, but begging poor. It is used in Luke 16:20 to describe the beggar Lazarus.
The word commonly used for ordinary poverty was penichros, and is used of the widow Jesus saw giving an offering in the Temple. She had very little, but she did have “two small copper coins” (Luke 21:2). She was poor but not a beggar. One who is penichros poor has at least some meager resources. One who is ptochos poor, however, is completely dependent on others for sustenance. He has absolutely no means of self-support.
Because of a similar statement in Luke 6:20 -“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God”-some interpreters have maintained that the beatitude of Matthew 5:3 teaches material poverty. But sound hermeneutics (the interpretation of Scripture) requires that, when two or more passages are similar but not exactly alike, the clearer one explains the others, the more explicit clarifies the less explicit. By comparing Scripture with Scripture we see that the Matthew account is the more explicit. Jesus is speaking of a spiritual poverty that corresponds to the material poverty of one who is ptochos.
Those who are materially poor do have some advantages in spiritual matters by not having certain distractions and temptations; and the materially rich have some disadvantage by having certain distractions and temptations. But material possessions have no necessary relationship to spiritual blessings. Matthew makes clear that Jesus is here talking about the condition of the spirit, not of the wallet.
He’s talking about spiritual bankruptcy. The only problem w/ the word “bankruptcy” is that so often a person/business is not really broke at all. Companies declare bankruptcy to protect their assets. When we declare spiritual bankruptcy, there is nothing in the bank! In fact, there never was.
This introduces us to the concept/doctrine of total depravity. Spiritually, everyone is flat broke. Man has nothing to offer God that will equal, earn, or merit God’s righteousness. There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who seeks after God, not one. Everyone is spiritually bankrupt—spiritually broke.”
When Jesus talks about the poor in spirit, He’s talking about a select group, a subset of all those who are totally depraved, and that subset (that smaller group) is the group who knows it. It’s one thing to be broke; it’s one thing to be depraved; it’s one thing to have a load of sin and to be under God’s wrath. But is is quite another thing to recognize that we, apart from God’s grace and His mercy, are hopelessly lost in our sins and spiritual debt.
A person who is “poor in spirit” realizes his/her…

· Worthlessness—Apart from Christ, I am nothing

· To acknowledge one’s spiritual bankruptcy…to realize that one’s proper place is in the dust before God.

· Emptiness—Apart from Christ, I have nothing

· This person experiences the painful discovery that all his righteousnesses are as filthy rags.

· The truer this is financially, the better the odds of one acknowledging its spiritual reality.

· Impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven

· Powerlessness—Apart from Christ, I can do nothing

· Mankind can do absolutely nothing to save himself; you can’t even do anything to assist in the process.

· I must be totally dependent upon Him for salvation. The kingdom of heaven is not given on the basis of race, earned merits, or wealth. It is given to the poor…those who are so “poor” they know they can offer nothing and do not try.

· Illus of it being easier to reach a prostitute than a moral, hard-working professional. Usually easier to reach someone whose life is retched than someone who is rich.

· To be poor is spirit is to recognize one’s spiritual poverty apart from God. It is to see oneself as one really is: lost, hopeless, helpless, and hell-bound.

· Apart from Jesus Christ every person is spiritually destitute, no matter what his education, wealth, social status, accomplishments, or religious knowledge.

· That is the point of the first beatitude. The poor in spirit are those who recognize their total spiritual destitution and their complete dependence on God. They perceive that there are no saving resources in themselves and that they can only beg for mercy and grace. They know they have no spiritual merit, and they know they can earn no spiritual reward. Their pride is gone, their self-assurance is gone, and they stand empty-handed before God.

· Jesus told the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-gatherer to “certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt.” As the Pharisee stood praying in the Temple, he proudly recited his virtues and gave thanks that he was not like those who are sinful, especially the tax-gatherer who was nearby. The tax-gatherer, however, “was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me, the sinner!’” The tax-gatherer, Jesus said, “went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:9–14). The Pharisee was proud in spirit; the tax-gatherer was poor in spirit.

Jesus puts this beatitude first because humility is the foundation of all other graces, a basic element in becoming a Christian (Matt. 18:3–4). Pride has no part in Christ’s kingdom, and until a person surrenders pride he cannot enter the kingdom. The door into His kingdom is low, and no one who stands tall will ever go through it. We cannot be filled until we are empty; we cannot be made worthy until we recognize our unworthiness; we cannot live until we admit we are dead. We might as well expect fruit to grow without a tree as to expect the other graces of the Christian life to grow without humility. We cannot begin the Christian life without humility, and we cannot live the Christian life with pride.
Until a soul is humbled, until the inner person is poor in spirit, Christ can never become dear, because He is obscured by self. Until one knows how helpless, worthless, and sinful he is in himself, he can never see how mighty, worthy, and glorious Christ is in Himself. Until one sees how doomed he is, he cannot see what a Redeemer the Lord is. Until one sees his own poverty he cannot see God’s riches. Only when one admits to his own deadness can Christ give him His life. “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord” (Prov. 16:5).
Theirs is the kingdom of heaven—those who have come to this realization are those who’ve passed from death to life; this attitude is always present when someone repents and comes to faith.
Those who come to the Lord with broken hearts do not leave with broken hearts.
Is 57:15 For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones. NKJV
God wants us to recognize our poverty so that He can make us rich. He wants us to recognize our lowliness so that He can raise us up.
2 Co 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.NKJV
Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.NKJV