1 Valley View Chapel May 27, 2012 Credibility 101, Part 2 Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Introduction Suppose we came up with a set of Beatitudes for the 21st Century. What if we made a list of the kinds of people who seem to be well-off who seem to have it made by today's standards? It might go something like this: Blessed are the rich and famous, because they can always get a seat at the best restaurants. Blessed are the good-looking, for they shall be on the cover of People magazine. Blessed are those who party, for they know how to have fun. Blessed are those who take first place in the division, for they shall have momentum going into the play-offs. Blessed are the movers and shakers, for they shall make a name for themselves. Blessed are those who demand their rights, for they shall not be overlooked. Blessed are the healthy and fit, because they don't mind being seen in a bathing suit. Blessed are those who make it to the top, because they get to look down on everyone else. The modern version doesn t sound anything like Jesus version, does it? That s because the modern version defines the world s idea of success while the beatitudes recorded in Matthew 5:3-12 define Jesus idea of success. That s why the beatitudes are counter-cultural and why a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ is counter-cultural, because she has integrated the beatitudes into the core of her life.
2 Jesus predicted that those who dared to order their lives by his principles instead of by the world s principles would be neither appreciated nor applauded. In fact just the opposite would be true. Jesus warned his disciples: "If you find the godless world is hating you, remember it got its start hating me. If you lived on the world's terms, the world would love you as one of its own. But since I picked you to live on God's terms and no longer on the world's terms, the world is going to hate you. John 15:18-19 (Msg) In Jesus high priestly prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane he said: I gave them your word; The godless world hated them because of it, Because they didn't join the world's ways. John 17:14 (Msg) But he also promised blessings on those who chose to follow him and swim against the stream of society s values. It is vital at the outset of this series on the beatitudes that I define carefully the meaning of the word blessed for each beatitude begins with the promise of God s blessing if the beatitude s condition is fulfilled. Blessed Let s begin with what blessed does not mean. The New Century Version translates Matthew 5:3, "Those people who know they have great spiritual needs are happy, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. (NCV) A number of years ago Robert Schuller wrote a book on the Beatitudes called The Be Happy Attitudes. Catchy title, bad theology. Happiness depends on what happens to me. Happiness depends on my circumstances. If good things happen to me, I m happy. If bad things happen to me, I m unhappy. That s perfectly normal. But blessed can t mean happiness because what makes you happy may make me unhappy. That makes happiness subjective. When Aaron Boone hit the walk off home run off Tim Wakefield in the seventh game of the 2003 ALCS, many of you were happy.
3 It may surprise you to know that I wasn t. When Johnny Damon hit his grand slam home run off Kevin Brown in the seventh game of the 2004 ALCS, many of you were unhappy. I wasn t. The Greek word for blessed makarios means to speak well of or to eulogize. When a friend or loved one is asked to give the eulogy at a funeral, they speak well of the deceased person. Haddon Robinson gave a concise but clear definition of what blessed means in the context of the beatitudes: To be blessed is knowing that we stand approved by God. John MacArthur defined blessed as a deep contentedness based on the fact that one s life is right with God. So blessedness has nothing to do with what makes me happy. Blessedness is an objective evaluation of my spiritual state in the eyes of an all-knowing, all-seeing God. Jesus was saying that if you want God s approval, you ll be poor in spirit. If you want to know that your life is right with God, then you ll be poor in spirit. Poor in Spirit There are two words for poor in Greek. One refers to the person who lives hand-tomouth with nothing left over for a rainy day. The other is the person for whom every day is a rainy day; the person who not only has nothing left over but has nothing at all to begin with. It describes a person who is living in complete and utter destitution. Jesus used the word in several contexts. He used it to describe Lazarus (not the same man he raised from the dead) in his story of the rich man and Lazarus: "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores. Luke 16:19-20 (NIV)
4 He also used it to describe the widow in Mark 12:42, But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. (NIV) But Jesus isn t referring to poverty of the pocketbook in the first beatitude. He s talking about poverty of the spirit. So, what does it mean to be poor in spirit? If I m materially poor, I don t have enough money to get by. If I m spiritually poor, I don t have enough goodness or righteousness to get by, to satisfy God s requirements. The word that Jesus used for poor ptochus means lacking in everything. So to be poor in spirit means that I m lacking in everything I need to be acceptable to God. Augustus Toplady drew a marvelous word picture of spiritual poverty in the third verse of the hymn Rock of Ages : Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling; Naked, come to Thee for dress; Helpless, look to Thee for grace; Foul, I to the fountain fly; Wash me, Savior, or I die. Why is poverty of spirit a counter-cultural concept? Because most people don t see themselves this way. Most people would be greatly insulted if anyone even Jesus told them they had absolutely nothing to contribute to their spiritual standing before God. Everybody will readily admit that they re not perfect. Not many, however, would agree with Paul s universal assessment of the human condition in Romans 7:18, I know that nothing good lives in me. (GWT)
5 Most people think that God judges our character and our good works based on the human standard of judging. Tim Keller commented on this tendency in his recent book Generous Justice: Many people today resist Jesus' teaching about our spiritual poverty. We say that we are middle-class in spirit. We feel that we've earned a certain standing with God through our hard work. Max Lucado in his book The Applause of Heaven described what our personal goodness really looks like: You don t impress the officials at NASA with a paper airplane. You don t boast about your crayon sketches in the presence of Picasso. You don t claim equality with Einstein because you can write H 2 O. And you don t boast about your goodness in the presence of the Perfect.Our cupboards are bare. Our pockets are empty. Our options are gone. Neither Jesus nor Paul said that we aren t capable of doing good things at the human level. They were saying that when it comes to meeting God s standards of goodness or righteousness, we are as good as bankrupt. Every person who has taken a baby-step in God s direction understood that possess nothing that will commend them to a holy God in whom is no imperfection. When Isaiah saw a vision of God, he cried out: "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a 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 (NIV) When Peter got a good look at Jesus power, he exclaimed, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" Luke 5:8 (NIV) After decades of pondering the character of God and his own human condition, Paul confessed to Timothy, This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" and I am the worst of them all. 1 Timothy 1:15 (NLT)
6 In his Confessions, Saint Augustine told how he came to see that pride was his greatest barrier to receiving the gospel. He was proud of his intellect, his wealth, and his prestige. The great reformer Martin Luther, to whom we owe the evangelical tradition of which we are a part, eventually came to see that his sacrifice, rituals and self-abuse counted for nothing in God s sight. Even a superficial knowledge of the Bible and church history will lead us to the conclusion that we cannot receive citizenship into kingdom of heaven until we recognize that we are unworthy of the kingdom of heaven. The Sequence of the Beatitudes The fourth century preacher and archbishop of Constantinople John Chrysostom stated that the beatitudes were like a golden chain. In other words, Jesus didn t come up with the eight beatitudes, put them in a hat and pull them out of the hat in no particular order. Chrysostom meant that the beatitudes are progressive. Each one leads to the next in a logical sequence. That means there s a good reason why Blessed are the poor in spirit comes first. The Importance of Grace In his book What's So Amazing about Grace, Philip Yancey recounted a story about C.S. Lewis: During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C.S. Lewis wandered into the room. What's the rumpus about? he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were
7 discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, Oh, that's easy. It's grace. Christianity s watermark is grace God s Riches At Christ s Expense. No other religion has a doctrine of the grace of God. That s why Christianity is counter-cultural and it s why the first beatitude in particular and the other beatitudes in general are counter-cultural. The idea of God's love offered free of charge to people without one thing to contribute to the transaction seems to go against our every instinct.so the Buddhists come up with their eight-fold path. The Hindu doctrine of Karma is a way of working off our badness over a succession of lifetimes. The Muslim code of law provides the blueprint for measuring up to God s standards. Even the sacramental system of some Christian traditions that combine the performance of church rituals with faith in Christ is a way to earn God s favor. None of these systems comprehends how serious is the human condition. God is holy and we are not. Our puny efforts at self-salvation are like offering a dollar to the one to whom we owe ten million dollars. It s no more a contribution than spitting in the ocean. Now we can see why being poor in spirit is so fundamental for everything else in the Christian life. Unless we recognize not only our spiritual poverty but our spiritual bankruptcy, we don t have a chance. The Kingdom of Heaven Here s the answer to the So what? question: OK. So I admit that I have not one thing to contribute to my salvation, what s the payoff? Oh, nothing much. Just the kingdom of heaven! We would be wrong if we mean that Jesus is saying that people who confess their spiritual bankruptcy will go to heaven when they die. Jesus says this in other places but it s not what he means here because the kingdom of heaven is in the present tense Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The payoff is that you get to experience the kingdom of heaven right now on earth.
8 Before I tell you what I think Jesus meant by the kingdom of heaven I need to point out the importance of the word theirs because Jesus really emphasized that word. In fact the first beatitude could be correctly translated Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs and theirs alone is the kingdom of heaven. Nobody gets the kingdom of heaven except those who acknowledge and admit their spiritual bankruptcy and come to Christ to receive his righteousness as a free gift. That automatically rules out the idea of universal salvation. It means that not everybody receives the kingdom of heaven. It means there s a string attached, a condition and the condition is to be poor in spirit. The kingdom of heaven is not a complicated concept. As a matter of fact, it can be defined in nine words: The kingdom of heaven is anywhere the King rules. The kingdom of heaven is alive and well in the life of every person who has given Jesus Christ his rightful place of undisputed leadership. The kingdom of heaven is anywhere Jesus the King of kings is calling the shots. Now what? The so what? question What s in it for me? is the big payoff, the kingdom of heaven. But I also need to answer the Now what? question. What do you need to do now to make this truth operational in your life? If you have never recognized your spiritual bankruptcy, you need to admit that you can t do one thing to save yourself. You need to see that Jesus Christ paid in full for your sin when he died on the cross. There s not one more drop of blood, sweat or tears that can be added to the purchase price of your salvation.
9 If you are a Christian and have confessed your spiritual poverty then you re going to go to the kingdom of heaven someday. There s no question about that. But there are probably some of you who aren t enjoying the kingdom of heaven now. And it s because you re not allowing the king to rule over every area of your life. You need to turn over every room, every cupboard, and every closet of your life over to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Only then will you enjoy a little bit of heaven on your way to heaven.