“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:3
--- The Word of God for us, the People of God ---
One day as he saw the crowds gathering,
Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he
began to teach them. “God blesses those
who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is
theirs. God blesses those who mourn, for
they will be comforted. God blesses those who are humble,
for they will inherit the whole earth. God blesses those who
hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied. God
blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy. God
blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. God
blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. God
blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is
theirs. “God blesses you when people mock
you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things
against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And
remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way. Matthew 5:1-12
In beginning a new series it’s important to open the
road map about where we are going. So,
over these next two months we will look at these vital areas of concern for
living life in the Kingdom of God:
·
Believing in Jesus
Christ
·
Praying
·
Forgiving others
·
Giving
·
Ministering
·
Being spiritually
and morally healthy
·
Persevering in the
faith
Before we begin exposition of THE Sermon, consider how humbly the preacher must come to this
passage. I am about to give a sermon
that proclaims THE Sermon. I am about to
stand-in for Jesus today (How’s that working for you,
Russell?).
But lest we forget, this sermon is what Jesus wanted
us to remember, and to live-into and pass-on to others. It would be a catastrophe for any preacher to
not preach this Sermon.
John Wesley pointed-out in his sermon[1]
on this text that when the sermon was over the multitudes were astonished…. Multitudes!
This was no private sermon; it was for everyone. It’s still
that way!
·
Martin Luther
held that the Sermon’s ethics were like the Ten Commandments (what Moses called
“the law”).
·
The Apostle Paul said “…the law, was God’s impossible moral demands [which] disclose the depths of our sinfulness; and drive us to our
knees in repentance.”[2] They are like schoolbooks, teaching us what’s
good and what’s not good.
·
Other modern-day liberal views have seen this
as Jesus’ ethical and moral encouragement to humans to “bring-in” the kingdom
of God on this earth by civil policies.
This is what’s called the “Social Gospel”.
·
Another modern-day
scholar (Craig Blomberg[3])
with whom I agree, suggests the Sermon is characteristic of an “already now/not yet” “inaugurated eschatology”. (Aren’t you glad you asked?)
In short, that means the kingdom ethic of everybody
at peace with everybody else will never be fully realized until the
consummation of the kingdom at the return of Christ. We’re bad people on this planet, and there
will be bad stuff done until Jesus returns.
But, while that’s so, on the other hand, the Sermon’s
ethic is still our goal and standard; we are to strive to live as Jesus taught,
now, here in this life. We are given
strength to do this by His Spirit. So,
it (the Kingdom) is already now, but not yet!
Today’s text (particularly 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven.) is instrumental
and foundational to understanding this already now – not yet nature of the
Sermon.
And we must not forget that these words of Jesus’ are a sermon…not just a list of
clergy rules from the Book of Discipline, or a political manifesto – the sermon
is an arrow to our hearts.
A sermon functions on many levels; a sermon:
·
is a word of healing to the human heart where needs cry
for a healer.
·
is a word of holiness requiring repentance of every sinner.
·
it speaks words of strength to build up the timid.
·
it speaks words of enlightenment to the tired, dull soul.
·
it utters words of motivation to listless lazy servants.
·
it speaks words of warning to the arrogant selfish child
of God.
·
it offers words of hope to the discouraged and oppressed
·
it casts words of challenge to the petulant
A friend and I were talking about the
sermon on the mount and he said to me that Jesus’ Sermon was just
slam-full of grace. This is
so true, because, just like the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament, the New
Testament Sermon of Jesus points to the incredibly overwhelming standard of
holiness God requires of his creation.
Jesus’ Sermon essentially reminds us every moment that
we are unable to meet this standard. He loudly
proclaims that it is by grace alone, that we are NOT saved by our own goodness,
or the good things we might do. (Eph
2:8-9)
This sermon is Jesus, who was full of grace, telling
us to accept his grace, and live into it with every breath we take in, and
share that grace with whatever we breathe out!
Of all the doctrines of the Christian faith, there is none which makes
any sense without grace:
·
The grace of God is
what gave us the cross.
·
The grace of God is
what gives us a hope of heaven.
·
The grace of God forgives
my sin.
·
The grace of God
gave me my first breath, and it is only by the grace of
God I’ll draw another.
·
All I do is by the
unseen hand of God loving and guiding
me.
·
In sum…without his
grace I am nothing.
Whenever I finally retire as your pastor, my fondest
hope is that when someone asks you what your pastor preached on for the years
he was here – that your answer will be framed by grace, and not anything of
Russell.
Here are two critically important phrases for
understanding how to live the Christian life, blessed are
and poor in spirit.
Blessed simply means “to be happy”. It is a condition of contentedness, a sense
that all is well, not because the circumstances of your life are good, but the
One who is in control of everything also loves you, and you trust Him.
Poor in spirit has nothing to do with financial poverty…to
be poor means humble. The
“in spirit” part of the phrase is “spiritually” or our attitude towards
God. To paraphrase it then is:
O how happy are
those who have a humble attitude towards God.
Every word Jesus ever uttered is virtually useless to
a person who is not humble towards God, ready to obey, serve and give. It’s what the Sermon means; it’s how we will
spend the next seven weeks.
What he said that day
As Jesus looked out over the crowd there on the
hillside, he saw in the faces of, perhaps thousands, the one common, expectant
hope of all individuals: every one of
them, no matter their station in life, wanted happiness.
They wanted that blessed state of knowing all was
well. But the sense of contentment they
were hoping for centered in seeing the circumstances of their lives
improve:
·
The affluent were craving something their
money couldn’t buy; the poor were looking to get rich
·
The blind wondered why God hadn’t given
them sight; the sighted were unhappy with all their
eyes could see
·
The old longed for the days when young
bones didn’t ache so much; the young were fighting the “system” they
figured was designed and run by the old
Every age and arena of life has its
dissatisfactions. The preacher of
Ecclesiastes had nailed it – all is vanity!
Is it any different today? Some roles may have switched:
·
the old
now fight the “system”.
·
the affluent
begrudge social assistance to the single parent who can’t seem to stay afloat
financially.
·
the activists
of every race, color, creed, or gender-specific movement cry out for a larger
share of the power.
We are no different than the crowd that gathered to
listen to Jesus on that hillside; they wanted a little share of the happiness
he talked about.
Today we seem to push from day to day,
event to event, seeking a better balance or just the right experience or new way
to legislate fairness in government, in the hopes that, just around the corner,
over the next hilltop, there will be The Emerald City in the Land of Oz,
and
just like Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion[4]
we’ll live happily ever after. Only it doesn’t work that way, does it? With all our searching, striving, planning
and diligence, the yellow-brick road just goes on and on; it’s the treadmill to
nowhere.
Does happiness really exist?
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus explained that happiness
does indeed exist. He even when so far
as to clearly show us where it is to be found; and how to get there. Of course there’s no person beside Jesus who
is better-qualified to draw the map.
Why is that so?
If you recall the children that surrounded Jesus, and the crowds that
flocked to him, and the parties and weddings – Jesus always seemed to be in the
center of things.
People don’t flock to people who want to talk about
their operations and lumbago. And you
don’t read in Scripture of any times when Jesus did that kind of
complaining. His words were of vital
concern to all; his words were of blessing, because he was an entirely blessed
man.
This brings us to the main thrust of the Sermon –
blessedness…happiness! It really does
exist!
Two Questions
There are two questions that will lead you to genuine
happiness – that wonderful state of blessedness, contentment that all is well
with your life and your soul.
#1. What kind
of man was Jesus?
Sit with Matthew 5:1-12 and run through those “blesseds”;
ask yourself if this was the kind of man Jesus was – merciful,
seeking the righteousness of God, pure in heart, reviled and persecuted
by men. If your answer is “yes
he was” all the way through, proceed to question #2:
#2. Do I want to be that kind of person?
If you want to be blessed, then you must humble
yourself before God…a servant of God who is poor in spirit.
A servant lives to please his master. That is what Jesus meant when he talked about
being poor in spirit – people who are willing to live for God’s rule in their
heart and life.
If your answer here is also yes, I do,
then blessedness, genuine contentment is not far off…it will come as you
surrender all you are to Him.
Each day when I finish writing a Rocky Road
Devotion, I end by wishing those who have read or listened a
blessed day. You may not
ever have connected that to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount…but, now you know –
you’ll have a blessed day when your believing in Jesus becomes behaving like
Jesus preached.
This is what we call believing in Jesus, and it is
blessed believing!
Our Prayer
Father
God, just like the Roman centurion asked Jesus’ help and was told he would
receive if he believed…and then he came totally clean when he confessed, I really DO believe…but
help me in my unbelief, we gather here because we do believe…but there
are gaps in the way we SAY we believe, and how we LIVE our lives. Help us, Lord, to find ourselves resting
totally in Your promises, and stepping out in the kind of faith that honors You
in everything we do.
And,
where we still waver, help us to be still in our souls, and remember the Lord
is on our side.
For the glory, honor, and praise to which You alone are worthy, o
Lord, we pray in the Name of the Son, cooperating with the Spirit, to honor and
exalt the Majesty of the Father.
Let
it be so in each of our lives…Amen!
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