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Revolution 2 |
- Last week we set the stage for the series as we looked at the Preamble to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5:1-12 (NRSV) When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. {2} Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: {3} "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. {4} "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. {5} "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. {6} "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. {7} "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. {8} "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. {9} "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. {10} "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. {11} "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. {12} Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
- The challenge last week was to begin to accept our need to have the Beautiful Attitude of Jesus Christ start a Revolution of Transformation in our lives.
- For the next few weeks, we are going to put each Beatitude under the microscope and look at each one very closely.
- We are also going to turn the microscope around and examine our lives against each of these Beautiful Attitudes of Jesus and to see how well we reflect the Attitudes of Jesus.
A Revolutionary Economy!
- {3} "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- Jesus goes right to the very heart of the matter as he starts to do heart surgery on Humanity.
- He identifies that there is something wrong in the human spirit that makes us misunderstand the economy of the Kingdom of God.
- Matthew 11:4-5 (NRSV) Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: {5} the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.
- Matthew 19:21 (NRSV) Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
- Luke 6:20 (NRSV) Then he looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
- Luke 4:18-19 (NRSV) "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, {19} to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
- Luke 14:12-14 (NRSV) He said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. {13} But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. {14} And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
- About a century ago, Leo Tolstoy, the great author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, motivated by his faith in Jesus, experimented with a plan to rid Moscow of the poor and homeless. He first went to the worst hovels in town and gave money to beggars, but soon realized that he had been "cheated by men who said they only needed money to buy a railway ticket home" when he spotted them still in town days later. He spent several months helping take the Moscow census, searching for the "truly" needy. But Tolstoy saw the homeless could not be helped merely by "feeding and clothing a thousand people as one feeds and drives under shelter a thousand sheep." Finally he sadly concluded: "Of all the people I noted down, I really helped none... I did not find any unfortunates who could be made fortunate by a mere gift of money."
- Matthew 26:11 (NRSV) For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.
- Though Jesus makes us conscious of the needs of the poor, he does not endorse any type of government or social plan to address economic needs.
- Frankly, he always addresses the needs of the heart.
- There is a story of very wealthy father who took his son on a trip to the country with the purpose of showing his son how rural poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"
"It was great, Dad."
"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.
"Oh yeah," said the son.
"So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.
The son answered: "I saw that we have one dog and they had six. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them."
The boy's father was speechless.
Then his son added, "Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are."
Isn't perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don't have - Just recently, a friend of mine was telling me of a new friendship that he has made with a husband and wife who are very wealthy.
- He shared that he has often found people like that the most resistant to following Jesus, because so many stories that are associated with Jesus come from people who were in great trouble, and it was obvious that they needed Salvation.
- Often the wealthy and powerful have a difficult time with this concept. It doesn’t sound like Good News to them.
- {3} "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- Sometimes it even bothers me. As much as we say we promote being the Imperfect Church, quite honestly I wish we weren’t so imperfect.
- Sometimes I am even a bit embarrassed by the people who sometimes speak the loudest for our faith, and often they seem uneducated and inarticulate.
- I sometimes wonder why there aren’t more Chuck Colson’s who can give an intellectual presentation of the Gospel and speak to people in politics.
- Why isn’t a church like Willow Creek on TV, instead of so many ill prepared and poorly produced shows.
- Why are the most popular TV preachers just a shade above an infomercial and have so much faith baggage.
- I learned why the hard way.
- When my parents first came to a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ and of His indwelling presence and power through the Holy Spirit, our local church wasn’t preaching much about it.
- They got most of their info from televangelists.
- There was a woman named Kathryn Kuhlman, who was a faith healer. She wore formal length chiffon dresses and she was quite dramatic and demonstrative in the way she preached and prayed for people to be healed.
- One of my fraternity brothers spent a semester in Ireland. When he returned from Ireland, we thought he would be sharing about the number of pubs that he frequented. Instead, he shared how he had become Born Again and filled with the Holy Spirit.
- He talked his roommate into attending a Kathryn Kuhlman meeting. When they got back, he came to our room and entertained us with his imitation of her. We all had a good laugh.
- Even though I was skeptical of that kind of ministry, there was something lacking in my life that I longed for at the time. I knew that I was far from God. I began my journey back to God and the embers of my early faith began to heat up again.
- About that same time Kathryn Kuhlman died. I heard an interview with her that really caught my attention and gave me some new insights into this controversial and peculiar follower of Jesus.
- She was asked why she thought God chose her to have such a dynamic healing ministry.
- Her answer was surprising to me. She stated rather emphatically that she didn’t think that she was God’s first choice. She actually thought that God had probably called a man first. Actually, she inferred that she was probably several places down on God’s list.
- After others refused to answer the call, God got down to her name and she was willing to answer.
- I have thought about her response quite often now for almost 30 years, am I poor enough in spirit to hear and respond to God the first time he calls me.
- I wonder how many times he has called me, and I have been full of my own spirit and God had to go to his next choice.
- In his Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis invents a conversation between a lead demon named Screwtape and a demon in training named Wormwood. He describes how to use humility to actually create spiritual pride.
- ”Catch him at the moment when he is really poor in spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, “By jove! I’m being humble,” and almost immediately pride—pride at his own humility will appear. If he awakes to the danger and tries to smother this new form of pride, make him proud of his attempt—and so on, through as many stages as you please.
- Do you know what is almost as distasteful as Pride….false humility.
- Being poor in spirit is not a state of false humility, whereby a person just tries to have an outward state of humility.
- The poor in spirit are constantly pouring out their spirit.
- It goes along with our recent series on the Lord’s Prayer where we learn to pray from our heart, “Not my will, but Thine be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
- Jesus was poor in spirit because he had poured out his spirit to be filled with God’s Spirit, God’s love, God’s peace.
- He calls us to do the same thing.
- Philippians 2:14-17 (NASB) Do all things without grumbling or disputing; {15} that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, {16} holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may have cause to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. {17} But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.
- The Gospel of Jesus Christ presents many paradoxes.
- For those who have poured out their spirit, who have become poor in spirit, they discover the richness of God’s Spirit living in them.
- The problem is that you can’t be rich in God’s Spirit and still be Rich in your spirit.
- It is part of the human dilemma. God wants us poured out, He wants us, as another Beatitude states, hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
- When we are poor in spirit, we hunger and thirst for God’s Spirit, and we find that it is the only thing that really satisfies.
- Once we are satisfied with God alone, then we have the power to begin to address the poverty issues of the world, but any attempt without the power of God working in us will be temporary.
- God’s greatest desire is to fill the poverty of our hearts, our souls, our spirit with the richness of His presence.
Who are the Poor in Spirit?
The poor in spirit, pour out their spirit
The poor in spirit are Rich in God’s Spirit.