Folks, today we’re going to be talking about the kind of relationship that God wants deeply to have with each one of us. But, there’re two sides to it, as usual. God wants to give us his incredible blessing over our life. Today, we’re going to learn together that if we approach life knowing that we are really nothing—spiritually speaking—without the One who is able to meet all of our needs, then we will know Christ! Then, we will experience the blessing of God as only God can give! Then, we’ll be on our way to knowing God’s smile… I’ll speak to that a little more in just a bit, but for now, let’s go to our scripture lesson for today…
Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:1-3 (NIV)
When I was a kid, every once in awhile I would try and do something that would really please my parents. Did you ever do that? (Parents today wonder if their kids love them at all sometimes, but teenagers—in particular—really do care about what their parents think about things.) Even though I was full of the dickens and was blamed for my mother’s gray hair more than once, I really did care about what my parents thought about things, including me. I sought their approval. Their approval, however, wouldn’t have to be verbal. When I did something that I was pretty sure would please my mom, for instance, all I would need to see was … her smile; then, I would know that I’d done something right—something she could be proud of… Her smile meant approval!
As we begin today, let me ask you this: When was the last time you saw God’s smile? Are we living lives that seeks God’s approval? The Bible calls that a blessing; God wants to bless our lives … and Jesus lets us in on how we can go about winning God’s approval—God’s blessing… As a matter of fact, he gives us 8 different ways; they’ve come to be known as the Beatitudes—toward the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). Today, we’re going to look at the first one—the first ‘blessed are you’ statement—that is the foundation for all the rest.
So, what does it mean to be blessed by God? First, let me say that this is the one place—as much as I like the Good News Translation—that the GNT doesn’t interpret the language quite right. In the Good News Bible, these beatitudes are translated “Happy are those….” BUT, ‘BLESSED’ DOESN’T MEAN ‘HAPPY!’ ‘Happy’ is more of a subjective state—a feeling. Here, Jesus is not declaring how people can feel; rather, he is making an objective statement about what God thinks of them. ‘Blessed’ is a positive judgment by God on the individual that means ‘to be approved’ or ‘to find approval.’ So, when God blesses … he approves us!
So, thinking back to my mom today … if being ‘blessed’ by God means approval, then perhaps when God blesses us, we’re also experiencing … ‘the smile of God!’ Now, let me ask you one more time: When was the last time you saw God’s smile? Well, Jesus says that we can ‘see God smile’ … if we approach our relationship with God ‘poor in spirit.’ Now here are some realities about that; first…
THE WORLD REJECTS BEING [BEGGERLY] ‘POOR IN SPIRIT’! Verse 3 (MSG) helps remind us why: “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.” One more time, let me say that THE WORLD DOESN’T LIKE THAT ATTITUDE!
- The world doesn’t like when God has to be in control…
- The world doesn’t like it when someone acts helpless…
- The world doesn’t like it when anyone has to admit that they can’t pull themselves us by their bootstraps (very western)!
What we are clashing with, in this old world, are values like PRIDE and PERSONAL INDEPENDENCE … and we’re good at pushing those, aren’t we? But, Jesus tells us that, spiritually speaking, we need to become ‘beggarly poor!’ So, what does that adjective mean? Let me take just a moment and explain…
Have you ever thought deeply about what Jesus meant when he said that we have to be ‘poor in spirit’ if we want God to smile on us? Let me begin by stating a few things that it’s NOT:
- It is not the idea that we have no self worth; it doesn’t require us to believe we’re ‘zeros’ in this world…
- ‘Poor in spirit’ does not refer to ‘shyness’…
- Nor does it mean that we are lacking in ‘energy’ or are ‘gutless’…
- Finally, I want to say that ‘poor in spirit’ really doesn’t refer to a showy kind of humility (oxy-moron) that says, “Look at me! I’m so humble!”
If you look back to the original language Jesus used here, the Greek word for ‘poor’ (πτωχός orptōchós) comes from a verbal root and literally means, “to cower and cringe like a beggar.” In classical Greek (later than NT Greek), the word came to mean “someone who crouches about, wretchedly begging.” So, in the NT, the word describes…
- A poverty so deep that the person must obtain his living by begging.
- He is fully dependent on the giving of others.
- He cannot survive without help from the outside.
Thus, an excellent translation of Jesus’ words here would be: ‘beggarly poor.’ But, the world really doesn’t care for people like that; it’s one reason that Christianity is offensive to this world we live in! It smacks up against our much coveted values like PRIDE and PERSONAL INDEPENDENCE; being ‘poor in spirit’ is the exact opposite of the proud selfishness and self-sufficiency of today’s world! But, what else does scripture tell us about the need to be ‘beggarly poor in spirit?’ Simply put, it’s essential…
BEING [BEGGERLY] POOR IN SPIRIT IS ESSENTIAL! Verse 3 (NCV), now from a different translation, shows us that: “Those people who know they have great spiritual needs are [blessed], because the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.” If we want God’s very best for our lives—want to be who God has created us to be in his Kingdom, then having a ‘poor in spirit’ attitude is essential! Here it is…
Being ‘beggarly poor’ in spirit is essential for these things:
- GOD’S APPROVAL [SMILE]! We must understand and embrace a true poverty of spirit, because that is the only way that we can ever know God’s smile—God’s approval in our lives!
Where is God’s heart in all of this? Just look at what happened each time God entered into our world…
- God loved King David … who said ‘Who am I … that I should become the king’s son-in-law?’ (1 Samuel 18:18)
- God loved Gideon … who said ‘…how can I save Israel? … I am the least in my family.” (Judges 6:15)
- God loved the (beggarly poor) shepherds … to whom the angels announced Christ’s birth—not the Establishment! (Luke 2:8-15)
- God loved Simeon and Anna, representatives of the poor in Isaiah’s prophecy, who were there to exalt Jesus when he was presented in the Temple as a child. (Luke 2:25-38)
These are always the people to whom God comes! Psalm 34:18 (NIV) reminds us: “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Oswald Chambers reminds us that ‘we must become broken bread and poured out wine’ (communion) in order to be truly useful to God! So, to have God’s approval—to experience God’s smile—means that we too must have an attitude that is ‘poor in spirit’—depending on God for everything in this life … and knowing without a doubt that we need to! Being ‘beggarly poor in spirit’ is also essential for these things (and I’ll just briefly mention them here):
- SALVATION! The unchangeable truth is that no one can come to Christ without being ‘poor in spirit.’ It means that those who are spiritually proud and self-sufficient—those who actually think there is something within them that will make God accept them—are lost (as opposed to saved)… Approaching God ‘poor in spirit’ is essential to our salvation!
Being ‘poor in spirit’ is also essential to our…
- SPIRITUAL GROWTH! Folks, I’ve got news for you: We never outgrow the first Beatitude! No one can continue to grow apart from an ongoing poverty of spirit… In fact, the more spiritually mature we become, the more profound will be our sense of spiritual poverty…
Do you want to know God’s greatest blessings in your life? It’s called ‘the kingdom of heaven.’ And, God’s word tells us that it can be ours … if we will learn to live ‘poor in spirit.’
Let me also say this, in closing: The reward of God’s kingdom is both now and in the future. It is present now, because all who have this life are in the kingdom now!
- We are seated with Christ in the heavenly places NOW (Eph. 2:6)…
- We are subjects of Christ NOW…
- We are overcomers NOW…
- We are a kingdom of priests NOW…
Pride makes slaves out of all who are under its control; but, not so with being ‘poor in spirit.’ We’re free to be full of God, free to be all that God would have us to be—free to truly be ourselves… What a blessing God gives us—what a smile we can see … as we look to him ‘poor in spirit.’