I don’t know about you, but I’ve always gotten a kick out of oxymorons. If you aren’t familiar with this term, an oxymoron is a combination of contradictory words that we use together all the time but don’t seem to go together. Here are some examples: fresh-frozen, ill health, pretty ugly, working vacation, almost exactly, sanitary landfill, icy-hot, act naturally, deafening silence, second best, free with purchase, sensitive guy, short sermon and so on.
Now as I told you last Sunday, this summer we are using our sermon time to study a portion of Scripture that seems to be full of oxymoronic sayings seemingly contradictory statements. I’m referring, of course, to the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, those verses we call the Beatitudes. Remember? In these first 11 verses of Matthew 5, Jesus applied the concept of holy happiness or invulnerable joy, that Greek word “makarios” that we spent so much time defining last week, nine times in these 11 verses. Jesus applied this wonderful word to things we’d never even consider applying it to in our way of thinking.
And this morning we begin our study with verse 3. But before we dive in, let’s remind ourselves of the background and setting of this sermon of sermons. As I told you last Sunday it was delivered at the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry, a ministry that was made up of three things: calling disciples, preaching, and healing. As news of Jesus’ ministry spread, crowds began to follow Him wherever He went. Everyone wanted to hear Jesus preach or experience the power of His healing.
This inaugural message is called the Sermon on the Mount because our Lord delivered it from the top of a grassy hill on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Here’s a picture taken from the bottom of the hill looking up to where Jesus would have taught. This is sort of the “back pew” perspective of the Sermon on the Mount.
And here’s a picture taken from the top of the mount. This would have been Jesus’ perspective as He looked down on His outdoor congregation.
Now, one thing I want to point out as we begin this study of the sermon Jesus delivered here is that these beatitudes are not just statements. No they are exclamations and they should be read that way. If we read them like this: “Blessed are the poor in spirit ” we are missing the tone of Jesus’ words, because these weren’t just statements. They were congratulatory exclamations: “Blessed are the poor in spirit!” Practice this tone as you memorize these powerful words!
By the way how are you doing on your memorization? Don’t answer, but let me give you some motivation. If you memorize these powerful words, you’ll begin to display them. These attitudes will become your attitudes! Hiding these words in your heart is a great first step toward embodying these attitudes that should be seen in any disciple of Jesus – attitudes that lead to actions, both of which make God proud.
But back to our study. As I said, these are not just statements. They are exclamations! And I also want you to note that these are positive exclamations. I mean, they are “dos” not “don’ts.” They are positive exclamations that guide us to the path to true joy in life!
I once read about a family that went to the state park for the day to enjoy the great outdoors. When they arrived at the gate they saw a whole row of signs that said, “No hunting! No fishing! No camping! No picnicking! No trespassing! No hiking! No photography!” A final sign in small print said, “This is your state park. enjoy it.” Well the Sermon on the Mount isn’t like that. It is a positive sermon! It is full of “dos” that tell us how to enjoy life, a truly blessed life, “makarios” life.
Okay, let’s look at our text for this morning. As I said, it’s verse 3 and I want to read it to you in several different translations to help us begin to understand these powerfully positive words.
The NIV, King James, New King James, and the New American Standard all translate it this way: “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!”
The New English Bible renders it this way, “How blest are those who know they are poor; the kingdom of heaven is theirs!”
J. B Phillips translates it like this, “How happy are the humble-minded, for the kingdom of Heaven is theirs!”
The Living Bible reads, “Humble men are very fortunate for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them!”
The New Living Translation puts it this way, “God blesses those who realize their need for him, for the kingdom of heaven is given to them!”
The Amplified Bible expands this to read, “Blessed, happy, to be envied and spiritually prosperous, are the poor in spirit (the humble, those who rate themselves insignificant), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!”
The Message captures the meaning well, “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and His rule!”
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Now, this morning I want to organize our study of this often-perplexing verse around three questions and the first is this.
(1) What exactly does it mean to be “poor in spirit?”
Let’s begin our search for a definition of this phrase by ruling out some misconceptions that some people have embraced over the years when it comes to this verse. For example, poor in spirit does not mean low self-esteem, feeling poorly about yourself, nor does it refer to mock humility you know, pretending to put yourself down. I mean, it’s not fishing for compliments by saying things like, “I look so fat in this dress don’t I?” or “I really messed up that solo!” or “No one likes me do they?” You know what I’m talking about: acting humble expecting people to respond to personal put downs like this by disagreeing with you and giving you a compliment. No, that is not poor in spirit. It’s self-focus. It’s pride, not humility.
Another thing. “Poor in spirit” doesn’t mean material poverty, being poor in possessions or finances. Unfortunately down through the centuries, many have taken it to mean this. Many have taught that this verse teaches that God favors those who are poor in a material sense. In the 4th century the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate went so far as to say he wanted to confiscate all the property belonging to Christians so that they would become poor and therefore be certain to enter the kingdom of heaven. He thought robbing them would be doing them a favor. But like so many others ole Julian misunderstood this beatitude.
Think of it. If Jesus were referring to material poverty, then it would be an unchristian thing for a Christian to seek to alleviate the burdens of the destitute and the starving in the world. It would not be right to try and provide for refugees left homeless by natural calamities. There would be no orphanages or hospitals if we interpreted this verse like this. If we interpreted poor in spirit this way, we’d have personal evangelism clinics in which we trained Christians to steal from the rich so as to get them into Heaven! Think about that! Charlie Brinkman would head up a committee of Christian thieves!
And of course, it doesn’t mean this. Any systematic study of the Bible would prevent us from interpreting these verses like this. I mean the fact is, God does not sanction poverty in any biblical passage. In Psalm 37:25 David said ,“I have never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread.” Plus, in His written word God repeatedly commands us to help the needy, so this beatitude was not referring to material poverty. Jesus wasn’t talking about financial bankruptcy, but rather our absolute spiritual bankruptcy before God.
Now, to fully grasp this fact, to really understand this phrase that seems like an oxymoron to us we need to do as we did last week. That is to say, we need to pause for a brief lesson in New Testament Greek so let’s get started. Take out your commentaries and your Greek dictionaries and lexicons and inter-linears!
Just kidding! I already did that and because I did, I can tell you there are two words in the Greek language for “poor.” The first is “penEEs.” It was used in Jesus’ day to describe a man who had to work for his living. This kind of man had nothing superfluous. He was not rich, but neither was he destitute. He was poor but he still had just enough to barely get along in life. A biblical example would be the widow who put her two coins in the offering. She was “penEESs” poor.
The other Greek word for “poor” is “ptochos” and this is the one we find in Matthew 3. Now, “ptokos” was used to describe absolute and abject poverty, a level of poverty that had beaten someone to their knees. Let me put it this way: “penEES” described an individual who had nothing superfluous. “Ptochos” described the man who had nothing at all. “PenEES” means you can earn your own living. “Ptokas” means you have no resource in yourself even to live. You’re totally dependent on somebody else. You’re so poor you have to beg like the beggar Lazarus who sat at the gate of the rich man desperate for the crumbs that fell from his table. I mean, “ptokos” referred to not just the poor, but rather the begging poor.
But remember, we’re not talking about financial or material poverty. Jesus wasn’t referring to our possessions. He was referring to our spiritual state.
Now don’t get me wrong. Material possessions can make us think we don’t need God. If we’re not careful, money and the things it can buy can prevent us from embracing this first beatitude. And it’s not just those who love to hoard money and the things it can buy. They aren’t the only ones who can become incapable of embodying this attitude. The educated, the arrogant, the strong, the independent, the successful, the popular, the religious, the movers and the shakers they can fall into this attitudinal trap as well. Several things can make us so proud we don’t think we need God’s grace. The fact is, if you think you will end up in heaven any way other than trusting in Jesus you’ve got a problem. As someone has said, “We may be well-educated but we are spiritually ignorant; we may be financially secure but we are spiritually bankrupt.”
The message of this beatitude is that we cannot save ourselves. “Not through the right rituals; not through the right devotion; not through the right goose bumps; nothing we do helps.” In this first statement Jesus was saying, “Blessed is the man who knows this! Blessed is the man who is poor in spirit! Blessed is the individual who has realized his own utter helplessness before God.” Can this man work to earn his salvation? Is he “penEEs” poor so he can work to earn his way to heaven can he do just enough to get into Heaven “by the hair of his chinny chin chin? No! He is not “penEES”, he is “ptokas.” He is absolutely incapable of this; he is totally dependent on the unmerited grace of God. Jesus is saying, “Blessed are the spiritual paupers, the spiritually empty, the spiritually bankrupt who know they are sinners and cringe in a corner crying out to God for mercy. They are happy they are makarios because they are the only ones who ever know God.”
You may remember reading Psalm 40:17 in our Chronological Bible reading where King David shows that He was poor in spirit. In this Psalm he said, “I am poor and needy; [I have nothing to make me deserve Your love God but I need it!] may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer oh my God. Do not delay.” Let me put it this way, being poor in spirit is the idea of coming before God with empty hands. As the second verse of that great hymn “Rock of Ages” says,
“Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to the cross I cling.”
This great old hymn text gets it right because this beatitude is talking about the person who has realized God’s standards are not within human possibility. Now unfortunately, many works-oriented faith systems disagree. They teach we can do enough good to earn our salvation. And, even Christians sometimes foolishly embrace this proud, ungraceful mind set. They act as if with their good deeds they can somehow pay their way to heaven. I mean, to them, every prayer is a check written. Every good deed is a payment made. The idea is if they could do one good act for every bad act their account will balance out in the end.
In his book In the Grip of Grace, Max Lucado says many people think, “If I can counter my cussing with compliments, my lusts with loyalties, my complaints with contributions, my vices with victories, then won’t my account be justified?” Lucado goes on to point to the foolishness of this way of thinking by listing several “holes” that are found in this argument. He says that “theoretically” we could pay for our own sin if it weren’t for several glaring problems.
A. First, we don’t know the cost of our sin.
The price of gas is easy to find. Every station puts it in clear view on their marquee. But it’s not so clear when it comes to our sins. What, for example, is the charge for getting mad in traffic jams on the beltway? If I get ticked off at some guy who cuts in front of me what do I do to pay for my crime? Do I drive 55 in a 55mhp zone for ten minutes to atone for my error? Do I give a wave and a smile to ten consecutive commuter-filled cars? Who knows?
Or, what if I wake up in a bad mood? What’s the charge for a couple mopey hours? Will one church service next Sunday offset one grumpy morning today? And what qualifies for a bad mood? Is the charge for grumpiness less on cloudy days than clear or am I permitted a certain number of grouchy days per year? It’s confusing isn’t it?
B. To make matters worse, not only do we not know the cost of our sin. We don’t always know the occasion of our sins.
I mean, even our perceptions have been negatively affected by our sinful state, so there are times when we sin and don’t even know it! Lucado writes, “I was 12 years old before I knew it was a sin to hate your enemy. My bike was stolen when I was 8. I hated the thief for four years. How do I pay for those sins? Do I get an exemption for ignorance? And what about the sins I’m committing now without realizing it? What if someone somewhere discovers it is a sin to play golf? Or what if God thinks the way I play golf is a sin? Oh boy, I’ll have some serious settling up to do.”
C. And what about our secret sins?
What about those times we sin by doing good deeds so that others will admire us, things that look good but are in fact bad? And what about sins of omission? Any secret sins of omission on your statement this month? Did you miss any chance to do good? Overlook an opportunity to forgive? Did you neglect an open door to serve? Did you seize every chance to encourage your friends? If so, how do you make up for those infractions?
And there are other concerns.
D. For example, what about the grace period? Is there such a thing when it comes to calculating the payment we must make for our sins?
Our credit cards allow a minimal payment and then they roll the debt into the next month. Does God allow that? I mean, will He let me pay off today’s greed next year? And, what about interest? If I leave my sinful greed on my statement for twelve months, does it incur more sin debt?
Do you get Lucado’s drift? We can’t pay for our own sin. It’s foolish and sinful to think we could! We are fallen beings; our actions, and inactions, even our thoughts and desires condemn us. The idea of paying for our sins with good deeds is like trying to walk up a hill of solid ice that is covered with three inches of mud. We loose ten steps for every one we take.
In fact, the Apostle Paul says the purpose of God’s law was to help us to see this fact. The law was given to show us how absolutely dependent we are on the unmerited grace of God. I mean, our inability to always obey the law of God in thought, word, deed, and inaction, shows us that all people are equally guilty before God. In Romans 3:19-20 Paul wrote,
“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law: rather through the law we become conscious of sin.”
Do you see what Paul is saying? The purpose of the law was not to save us, but rather to condemn us. It’s function is to show us how desperate we are, how “ptokas” we are for God’s grace.
You know, people often criticize Christians, saying their faith in Jesus is just a crutch. John Piper talks about this and points to the fact that people don’t usually look at crutches and say, “Crutches are bad.” They don’t usually think of crutches as bad things, so why does a crutch become a bad thing when it’s applied to Christianity? Well, Piper says, and I agree that the answer is the fact that people think if Christianity is a crutch then it’s only good for cripples and we don’t’ like to see ourselves as cripples. We’re too proud, to self-sufficient, to think that way so to many people this is a put down. And I admit, when I first saw that phrase, I was offended because it made me look like a 98 lb spiritual weakling! But then I thought about it and I realized how true that is! I am a cripple! I am a sinner who is absolutely dependent on God’s gracious forgiveness. I need Jesus! And I’m not ashamed to admit it!
I can relate to the lyrics of Gary Chapman’s song:
“In this mystifying maze that life brings, I can break it all down to one simple thing: I need Jesus! I need Jesus in my life! I don’t need a bigger house, another toy, another stress release distraction to enjoy: I need Jesus! I need Jesus in my life!”
And, the fact is each of you needs Jesus as well. We are all “ptokas” before God because all of us have sinned! All of us fall far short of God’s righteous and holy standard! We’re all cripples! And do you remember what Jesus said about this? He said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17) In other words, the only people who will ever come to get what Jesus has to give are people who know that they are sick people who realize they spiritually and morally crippled.
Being poor in spirit is this realization. It is a sense of powerlessness. It’s a sense of spiritual bankruptcy and helplessness before God. It’s a sense of moral uncleanness before our Holy God. It’s a sense of personal unworthiness before God. It’s a sense that if there is to be any life or joy or usefulness, it will have to be all of God and all of grace. And the reason I emphasize this word, “sense” is because everyone is poor in spirit. Everybody, whether they sense it or not, is powerless and bankrupt and helpless and unclean and unworthy before God. But not everyone is blessed. When Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” he does not mean everybody. He means those who sense it, those who feel, it those who realize, it those who admit it. The first step toward “makarios” the first step toward invulnerable joy is a plea for help. Those who taste God’s presence in their lives have declared spiritual bankruptcy and are aware of their spiritual crisis. Their cupboards are bare. Their pockets are empty. Their options are gone. They have long since stopped demanding justice; They are pleading for mercy. They don’t brag they beg. They ask God to do for them what they are too crippled to do without Him.
Okay next question
(2) Why would Jesus begin His sermon with this particular beatitude? Why place “poor in spirit” first in His list of oxymorons?
Well, our Lord did this because the beatitudes are progressive. I mean they build on each other so we must start here.
Remember, Jesus is the Master Teacher so this is not a random list. He intentionally began with verse 3. If you have your Bibles, open them to Matthew 5 and follow along as I show you this progression and you’ll see what I mean. As I have said, being poor in spirit (vs 3) is basically having the right attitude toward sin and this right attitude leads us to mourn about our state as fallen beings(vs 4). After we’ve seen our sin and grieved over it, we are meek with the right sense of humility (vs5). This compels us to seek and hunger and thirst for righteousness (vs 6) which manifests itself in our being merciful toward other sinners (vs 7). This helps us to be pure of heart, (vs 8), which gives birth to a peace-making spirit (vs 9). The result of being a peacemaker is that we are persecuted, reviled and falsely accused (vs 10-11). Why? Because this kind of lifestyle irritates our fallen culture. It goes against the flow. When it’s all said and done though, verse 12 says we can rejoice and be exceedingly glad for our culture won’t last forever. Someday we’ll be in eternity with Jesus and when that day dawns we’ll see that great is our reward in heaven. Now, when we live like this, when we embrace and embody the beatitude, we can be sure that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world (verses 13 & 14). As I told you last week we will stand out if we livE out these beatitudes! But the fact is we can’t be salt and light until we start in verse 3. We can’t skip verses 3-11 and go right to 13 and 14. It won’t work. It would be like trying to build the new World Trade Center tower by beginning with the top floor.
So, we must begin our maturity as Jesus’ disciples here. Becoming poor in spirit foundational to living out the other beatitudes. You can’t even become a Christian unless you’re poor in spirit. I mean, you might as well expect fruit to grow without trees if you think the graces of the Christ life grow without “ptokos.” This is where it all begins. Warren Weirsbe writes, “True poverty of spirit is the soil out of which the fruit of the Spirit can be cultivated.” And he is right. It is the very first thing that must happen in the life of anybody who wants to enter God’s kingdom. No one ever decided to follow Jesus in life on the basis of pride. Let me put it this way. The doorway to the Kingdom of God is very low and only people who see their sin and in humility bow low can come in.
I remember years ago taking our kids on sort of a “Virginia Vacation.” We did Kings Dominion and the Skyline drive and we also toured the historical sites around Charlottesville places like Mitchie’s Tavern, Monticello the home of Thomas Jefferson and Ash Lawn, the home of James Monroe. One thing we learned in these tours is that Jefferson and Monroe were good friends. In fact, Jefferson designed Monroe’s home for his friend. It is located within clear sight of his beloved Monticello. Ash Lawn’s front door faces Monticello. But as a mischievous prank, Jefferson intentionally made the front door of Monroe’s house low so that Monroe would have to bow toward Monticello every time he left!
Well, in essence that is what God has done. To begin the Christ life, to enter His kingdom, we must bow low. We must in fact get on our knees before Him confessing our helpless sinful state. We must begin with humility. So, this is why Jesus began his message on the attitudes of a disciple with this particular beatitude. We must be humble in order to have God’s approval. Let me put it this way. We will only be filled when we own our emptiness. We cannot be made worthy until we recognize our unworthiness, or as someone has said, “We can’t live until we admit we’re dead.” Or as another person put it, “Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.”
(3) Okay one last question: How do we embrace this attitude? How do we become poor in spirit? I want to suggest three things:
A. First, regularly, daily, ask God to help you see your sin as sin.
You see, as Lucado inferred our sinful state blinds us such that if left to ourselves, we gradually begin to justify our sin. We become proud and begin to think like our world thinks. So to remain poor in spirit we must regularly, daily, ask God to show us our sin. We need to ask Him to so shine the light of His holiness on our attitudes and actions.
Lifton Fadiman tells a wonderful story about Charles Steinmetz, a genius of an electrical engineer for General Electric in the early part of the twentieth century. On one occasion after his retirement, when the other engineers around GE were baffled by the breakdown of a complex of machines, they asked Steinmetz to come back in to see if he could pinpoint the problem. Steinmetz spent several minutes walking around the machines. Then he then took a piece of chalk out of his pocket and made a cross mark on one particular piece of one particular machine. To their amazement, when the engineers disassembled that part of that machine, it turned out to be the precise location of the breakdown. A few days later, the engineers received a bill from Steinmetz for $10,000 a staggering sum in those days. This seemed exorbitant, so they returned it to him with a request that he itemize it. After a few more days they received a second, itemized bill that read like this:
Making one cross mark: $1.00 Knowing where to put it: $9,999.00
Well, to keep this attitude, to remain poor in spirit, to see our sin as sin, we need God’s expertise. We need Him to put a chalk mark on our sin. We need to pray as David did and say, “Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me.” (Psalm 90:12)
B. Second, we must stop comparing ourselves to others.
You see, it is never possible to create a true poverty of spirit by looking within or by looking around at other people. The human heart is corrupt. And because of it we will always latch upon someone who is worse in some respect than we are. We will find someone who is prouder than we are, and although we may still be quite proud we will congratulate ourselves on being humble. We will find someone who has strong fits of temper, and although we have a temper we’ll congratulate ourselves on being more moderate than they are. It will go like this in all of our shortcomings. So don’t look around, look up. Constantly compare yourself to God. We must see our poverty against His plenty. I mean, the quickest way to become spiritually poor is to look at God because in the presence of one Who is perfect, how can we boast about how good we are?
Do you remember how Isaiah responded to His look up? In true “ptokos” form, he cried, “Woe is me!” I am ruined! For I am man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5)
So, to become poor in spirit, don’t compare yourself to others. Don’t look around. Look up. C. S. Lewis once wrote,
“Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good above all, that we are better than someone else, I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself all together.”
So to be poor in spirit, ask God’s help. Stop comparing yourself to others.
And finally.
C Discipline yourself to depend on God for everything everyday.
In John 5:5 Jesus said, “Without Me you can do nothing.” Well, acknowledge that fact. The prayer I pray most often is “God help me.” I pray this because I have learned the hard way that I am “ptokas” without God. I can’t do this job on my own. I fall flat on my face every time I try so I’m constantly praying, “God help me. Help me, please help me.” Well, anyone who wants to be poor in spirit must learn to pray this prayer. We need to prostrate ourselves before God daily and say this.
Three ministers were discussing the proper way to pray. One said that the best way was with hands together and fingers up. Another said the best way was on his knees. The third said the best way was prostrate on the floor. An electrician in the back overheard their conversation and added, “The best posture for me to pray was hanging upside down with a live wire wrapped around my legs.”
Well, this electrician had it right. We are doomed without God. We all are a heartbeat from eternity without Him and we need to acknowledge this fact.
Now, we refer to this next part of our service as a time of invitation and we think of these important moments at the close of our service as a time for us to respond to God’s invitation. Well, this morning I want us to expand that. I want us to make this a time when we also invite God to rule in our lives. I want this to be a time when we all admit we are “ptokos” without God and invite Him to help us.
If you’re here and you’ve never confessed your sin to God and begged for His forgiveness through Jesus Christ then do so. Ask Jesus to forgive you. Give Him your life and today the kingdom of Heaven will be yours!
Fellow believers use these moments to confess your need for God’s help in life. Pray something like this: “God, I can’t be a father without Your help. I can’t be a husband or wife without Your guidance. I can’t do this job without You. I can’t do my part in the work of this church without Your strength So help me help me help me.”
If you don’t have a church home, you need to pray, “God I need the fellowship of other believers. I can’t be a Christian on my own. Guide me to a good church family!”
If you feel led to come forward to pray or to make your decision public do so now as we stand and sing.