The Beginning of Blessings--Sermon on the Mount Series

            We’re getting very close to the start of graduation season, and if you attend many graduations this year, you’ll probably hear some of the regurgitated slogans that capture the wisdom of our age—favorites like:

• ·         “Follow your heart; it will never lead you astray”
• ·         “If its meant to be, its up to me”
• ·         “Realize your own potential for greatness”
• ·         “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”

I started to wonder the other day how Jesus might be received as a graduation speaker today. I’m sure a school would have a packed house if they could announce that Jesus was their graduation speaker, but how would people react if Jesus walked to the podium and said, “The first thing you need to understand is your complete lack of anything that might allow you to lay claim to God’s favor.” I wonder if Jesus would get invited back the next year.

      Today, we’re going to hear basically that message from Jesus as we start to look at the Sermon on the Mount. This will be merely the beginning of a complete overhaul of much of the so-called “wisdom” that we hear in our culture today. You can expect to receive a new outlook on life as we learn to see it from Jesus’ point of view.

      Our study will take us first of all into a collection of verses known as The Beatitudes. Let me make a couple of comments about these verses in general before we study the first one today. First, as we read The Beatitudes, we should not read these statements as a list of things to do in order to be born again, or in order to receive forgiveness of our sins. Nor should we read these verses as a checklist to use in order to measure whether you have been born again; or in other words, to find assurance of salvation.

The best commentary on The Beatitudes comes in Matthew 5:19, where Jesus states that we will not all have the same status in His kingdom on Earth. He says that some will be called least in the kingdom of Heaven, and some will be called great in the kingdom of Heaven. The Beatitudes, then, are a description of the kind of person who will be called great in the kingdom of Heaven. I think this is confirmed by v. 12, which says that the person described in The Beatitudes will have great reward in Heaven. These verses tell us how to live in order to hear that statement of approval from Jesus, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

      Second, in all of these verses, we will read that the person being described is called “blessed.” Let’s talk about what that word means. When you hear this word, don’t equate it with the word “happy.” As you’ve probably heard at some point, happiness is simply an emotional response to what’s going on around you. In fact, the word “happiness” is related to the word “happening,” as in what’s happening around you. So happiness is simply a good feeling that you get when you like what’s happening around you.

            But this word “blessed” is not talking about a feeling that just comes and goes in your life. Blessedness is the status of being approved by God. It is a status that we can enjoy now as we live out these attitudes and actions, and it is a status that will one day be made obvious to everyone in Christ’s kingdom because of the rewards that the “blessed” person will receive. So blessedness goes beyond a mere feeling of happiness, and it remains even if your circumstances make you feel unhappy—it is a wonderful thing, indeed!

With these points in mind, we are ready to look at the first Beatitude which is found in v. 3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

“THE POOR IN SPIRIT…”

            Right away, we learn that Jesus would not do very well as a modern-day self-help speaker. Instead of telling us to realize our inner potential and power, He tells us to realize our inner poverty! When Jesus says, “poor in spirit,” he’s talking about the way that we view ourselves with respect to God. Do I see myself as having credit in my spiritual bank account (so to speak) that I could use to bargain with God, or do I see myself as having nothing with which I could purchase or gain His approval and favor?

            Its very important for us to understand the word “poor” that Jesus uses here. When we hear the word “poor,” we probably think of those who are financially poor in our country. Now, in our country in particular, it is possible for people to be financially poor, yet have a fair number of things. They may not have much, its true, but they often do have something. But Jesus is not saying, “Blessed is the man who can say, ‘I may not have much credit built up with God, but at least I have some!”

            The word that Jesus uses is the Greek word ptoxos. It’s the word that’s used to describe Lazarus in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, where we’re told that Lazarus would lay at the gate of the rich man’s property and long to eat anything that fell from his table. Lazarus was a beggar, and he was totally at the mercy of the rich man.

            So Jesus is saying, “Blessed are those who realize that they are totally at the mercy of God, who understand that they have nothing with which to gain His approval or favor.” We would normally use the word “humility” to describe this attitude, and it is perfectly portrayed in Jesus’ story about the Pharisee and the tax collector. Let’s take a look at that story in Luke 18. (If you’re not familiar with this, tax collectors were seen as traitors by the Jewish people of Jesus’ day because they worked for a foreign government. Jesus is not putting down anyone who works at the IRS!) [READ Luke 18:9-12]. Notice that this Pharisee felt like he had some credit in his spiritual bank account; he thought he had some airline miles on his spiritual credit card because he regularly performed religious activities, and he thought that God must have been impressed by that. Now, let’s read about the tax collector [READ vv. 13-14]. The tax collector is a perfect example of someone who is poor in spirit. He realized that he was totally at the mercy of God; he had nothing that would impress God and no way to bargain with Him. He could do nothing but ask for mercy, and Jesus said that’s exactly what God was looking for.

            Now its very important to remember that we’re supposed to have this attitude not only when we accept Christ and are converted, but throughout our lives as well. It is easy to allow a particular idea to quietly take root in our minds—the idea that we do start to accumulate spiritual “credit” with God after we are converted. We realize we have no credit before God when we’re converted, but we might think that from that point forward, we start to build up credit with God like fuel points at Dillons, and then we can cash in that credit when we want God to heal us from cancer or get our kids out of a bad relationship or something like that.

This attitude can produce bitterness and anger within us when hard times inevitably come in our lives. We may find ourselves saying, “God, how can you allow this to happen to ME? I go to church; I gave money to that missionary whenever he came through town; I took food to that sick person that one time; I invited over those neighbors of mine who are hard to get along with.” We get angry with God because we feel like we had somehow built up credit with Him that was supposed to bring only good things and not bad things.

In reality, we do not build up credit with God at any time. There is never a moment when we can say, “I deserve this or that from God.” Now, we can recall the things that God has promised to do in His grace, but that is different from saying, “I deserve this or that.” Jesus drives home this point with a short story in Luke 17:7-10 [READ Luke 17:7-10]. So what’s the most that I can say for myself when I’ve done all—ALL!—that God commands? “I am an unworthy servant; I have only done what was my duty.”

Now, as we’ll see, it is true that God promises to reward those who obey Him, but even those rewards are a sheer act of God’s grace. We will not receive them because we deserve them; we will receive them because God is incredibly, amazingly, unfathomably gracious!

“THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN”

            Looking again at Matthew 5:3, Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for (or we could also translate this “because”) theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This is why Jesus called them blessed—not because life will be all sunshine and rainbows for them in the here-and-now, but because of their relationship to the kingdom of heaven.

            Now when you hear this phrase “theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” don’t simply think “they will live in heaven with God after they die.” That is true, but Jesus is talking about more than that. It is so important for us to remember that part of our future destiny is to live again on this planet with Jesus when He returns to reign as king over the Earth. Even if we die today, we will return to this planet with Jesus in our resurrected bodies to live with Him in His kingdom.

            You may remember that last week, we read that the basic message of Jesus’ very first sermons was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt 4:17).” Jesus was talking about the worldwide kingdom of peace that was promised in the Old Testament. When Jesus came into world the first time, He was prepared to establish that kingdom, but the people were not spiritually prepared for it—that’s why He first called them to repent. But when the people almost unanimously rejected His call to repent, God delayed the establishment of that kingdom, and it has been delayed now for almost 2,000 years as God has sent the message of the Gospel far and wide throughout the Earth.

            But when Jesus mentioned the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 5:3, that’s what He was referring to—the worldwide kingdom of peace that Jesus will one day establish in this world. And notice that Jesus says of the poor in spirit that the kingdom is theirs. I think this is a little different than simply saying that the poor in spirit will live in that kingdom—which is true—but I believe Jesus is saying that the poor in spirit will have a piece of ownership in that kingdom.

            Let me clarify what I mean by pointing you to a conversation between Jesus and the Apostles in Luke 22 [READ Luke 22:24-30]. Don’t miss what Jesus is doing—He is giving the Apostles a role in His administration, so to speak. This is similar to what our president does when he comes into office. There are certain jobs that the president can give to anyone he wants—Chief of Staff, Senior Advisor, Press Secretary. And who does he give those positions to? To the people who were working closely with him during his campaign. Their positions are a reward of sorts for the work they did for the president.

            This is Christ’s reward for those who serve Him—for those who grow and display the kind of character traits He desires, for those who faithfully stand with Him. He gives them an honored position of service to Him in His kingdom. I believe this is what Jesus means when He says of the poor in spirit, “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” They will share in Christ’s authority to reign.

            This idea fits perfectly with the mission that God gave to mankind way back in Genesis 1. God said of mankind, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them rule over the earth (Gen 1:26).” When Christ sets up His kingdom in this world, He will fulfill God’s original intention for mankind, and we will serve with Him in that task to a greater or lesser degree based on our faithfulness to Him today.

            As I noted earlier from Matthew 5:19, some will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, and some will be called great. How do we pursue that greatness in the kingdom of Christ? Not in the way that the wisdom of our age would tell us. The frame of mind that puts us on the right track is to remember our utter spiritual poverty before God. At no point do we possess anything on our own that would allow us to gain God’s approval or favor. As Lazarus was completely at the mercy of the rich man when he laid there at his gate, so we are completely at the mercy of God for all things. This is the attitude that is called “blessed” by Jesus, and it is the attitude that will help us willingly receive the rest of the words that He will speak in this sermon.