New York UBF – NY University Bible Fellowship (NYUBF)

Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

Matthew 5:1-3

Key Verse Mt 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

In Mt Ch 4, Jesus began his messianic ministry in Galilee by preaching the message of repentance and the kingdom of heaven. He also called his first disciples: Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John. They were fishermen in Galilee. But Jesus called them to be his disciples with God’s vision to make them fishers of men. Through this calling, their lives were greatly changed and blessed beyond their imagination. They could participate in God’s salvation as Bible teachers, shepherds and prayer servants. According to Revelation chapter 21, their names are written on the twelve foundations of the New Jerusalem in heaven.

Matthew chapters 5-7 are generally called the Sermon on the Mount. Most Jews in Jesus’ time were not sincere believers. Most of them were superficial and cultural. Likewise, it’s very easy for us to become superficial and cultural Christians. If someone attends Sunday worship service regularly, he is considered a good Christian. But that’s not enough. We need to live Christian lives by seriously practicing what Jesus commanded us through the Sermon on the Mount. So let us prayerfully study this sermon so that we may be truly happy and become living examples of Jesus.

Look at verses 1 and 2 again. “Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying.” Here, we see that Jesus had compassion for the crowds of people who came to him. According to the previous passage, we know that most of them were sick and depressed people. Some of them were physically ill, emotionally unstable or even demon-possessed. In fact, Jesus loved all of them regardless of their human condition. Whether they were rich or poor, politically oppressed or powerful, educated or uneducated, Jesus had compassion on all of them. And he began to teach them.

Everyone gave his attention to Jesus, waiting for him to say something. At that time, the majority of the Jews expected the Messiah to be a military and political leader who would liberate them from the yoke of the Roman Empire and establish their nation Israel, not as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, but as the richest and most powerful nation on earth. So their expectations were great. His speech on the mountainside was his inaugural speech as the Messiah. Yet, his speech had nothing to do with their economic and political concerns.

I. Blessed

What was the opening statement of his sermon? Did he say, “God bless Israel”? No. Look at verse 3. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” What? What an unexpected remark it was? “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Not only was that, but the entire contents of his sermon was the opposite to their common senses. “Blessed are those mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who hunger and thirst, blessed are the merciful, blessed are those who are persecuted…” We wonder how the crowds of people listened to his sermon and responded. In fact, according to 7:28, when Jesus had finished saying things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. Although they could not understand Jesus’ sermon completely, they felt that Jesus’ teaching was soul- refreshing and different from their teachers of the law.

In order to understand Jesus’ sermon, we need to think about the meaning of the word “blessed.” The word “blessed” means happy, fortunate, and blissful. If one of us bought the lottery at the Seven Eleven nearby our church, and it was found to win 10 million dollars. Then, we would say that person would be very fortunate and happy. I did not experience that kind of feeling yet, it might be like walking on the Moon. Happiness is feeling extremely good and relaxation with complete sense of security. Then, can we call him as “blessed”? Maybe or may not.

There is a story that happened in ancient China. A man was riding a horse. Unfortunately, the horse was frightened by something and made sudden movement. He fell down from the horse and broke his leg. He was very unhappy for the things happened and cursed the horse. A few days later, a war broke out in the country he lived and many young men in his village were drafted but he was not because of his broken leg. Sometime later, the war ended but the most of the young men in his village could not come back. His bad luck turned out to be a blessing to him and he thanked to his horse. Happiness might be feeling good and secure but blessedness is more than that. Sometimes, we feel a blessing as a burden. Blessedness doesn’t make us feel good all the time.

I searched the dictionary meaning of blessed(adjective), blessing(noun), or bless(verb). The first definition of “blessed” was “holy; favored by God.” The first definition of “blessing” was “receiving God’s favor, help or protection” and the second definition was “gift from God.” The first definition of the word “bless” was “to ask God’s favor” and the second def. was “to make or call holy.” I was surprised that most of the definitions that were related to the word “blessed” were related to “God” or the word “holy.” The word “blessed” was not related to the word “happiness” that much. Blessing is more than feeling good or feels happy. Actually, while I was preparing this message about “blessed”, I did not feel good and was annoyed because my computer kept making problems while I was typing. However, I knew that I was blessed because I could spend time with God’s word intensively.

Then, what does the Bible say about the meaning of the word “Blessed?” do you remember where the word “bless or blessed” appears in the Bible for the first time? It is Genesis ch1 v22. However, that was for the fish and the birds. For the human being, it is V28. “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” After that, the “blessed or bless” appears 329 times in the Bible. All of them can be divided into two categories. One is temporary blessing, the other is spiritual blessing.

Temporary blessings were described in the Bible as having rain for the crop, abundant harvest, food, clothing, having many children, victory over enemies, prosperity and gaining worldly honor. All those things make us feel good and happy. Therefore, the blessings we want to receive and recognize as blessings are mostly those things. But those things are temporary. It means that sometimes we have those blessings and sometimes we lose those blessings. And eventually we will lose them all. Those blessings can not be our ultimate blessings. The best example of this is in Luke ch 12. “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He said to himself, you have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him, you fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”

Bible emphasizes other blessings that have eternal values. Those are eternal salvation, sanctification, peace that comes from God, holiness, and God’s divine favor. These are the real blessings that God wants us to desire and recognize. “Once, Jesus sent out his seventy two disciples to preach the message of the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. When they returned, they were overjoyed. “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” They were happy when people recognized them as very powerful men of God. Jesus encouraged them. But he told them, “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Having an eternal salvation is much greater and greater blessing than having fame on earth.

God’s divine favor is great blessing to us. However, this blessing sometimes makes us uneasy and burdensome. So we often forget to appreciate to God and become grumpy.

For example, God gave his special favor to the Israelites by appointing them as a kingdom of priest and holy nation. This was the great blessing to them. They were miserable slaves in Egypt. However, God showed them God’s almighty power and His Holiness. God gave them the land flowing with milk and honey. They became the most honorable nation because of God special blessing. However, they did not feel like of being “kingdom of priest and holy nation” as a blessing. Bible study seemed bored compared to the cool things in the outside. They had to go to the synagogue on every Sabbath while Gentiles were enjoying the barbeque picnic. They should offer tithe for God’s ministry while Gentiles enjoy driving brand new 2009 model chariot with extra money. They had to obey so many Dos and Don’ts while gentiles were enjoying their maximum freedom by doing whatever they wanted. When they see them serving idols, that looked more fun than serving God. Gentile girls in idol temple looked more attractive and glamorous than girls in God’s house. Overall, they did not regard “being a kingdom of priest and holy nation” as a blessing anymore but a burdensome. As a result, their blessing was taken away from them.

We shouldn’t be deceived by our feelings. We shouldn’t be blinded by temporary blessing. God called us as Bible teacher for God’s soul winning ministry. God called us as a shepherd for God’s lost sheep. God called us as a prayer servant who keeps the lamp of prayer in this dark and confused generation. God called us as a “Kingdom of Priest and Holy Nation” in this 21st century. These are great blessings that we could have from God. These are greater blessing than having wealth, health, and fame in this world. We might not feel like it, but that’s true.

Living as “Kingdom of priest and Holy Nation” doesn’t mean that we should live like out of date 19 century pilgrim priest. Rather, we should be more attractive and cool by having different qualities than that of the worldly people. We should be more broad-minded. We should be more courageous. We should be the first one who can sacrifice a little bit more than others. (example) We should be the one who would not compromise with dishonest gain. Honestly speaking, being a Bible teacher and prayer servant are sometimes burdensome because it requires sacrifice. It requires extra work after working all day long in the working place. However, those are holy burden. Yes, our burden itself is our blessing. Someone said, the word “blessing” came from “bleeding.” Jesus’ bleeding became our blessing. Father’s bleeding will become children’s blessing. Bible teacher’s bleeding will be a blessing to the Bible students. May God help us to acknowledge God’s everlasting blessing as blessing and treasure them. If we don’t recognize God’s divine favor as a blessing, God will find someone who will appreciate God’s blessing.

II. The Poor in spirit

Let’s read verse 3 again. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” What does it mean to be poor in spirit? The opposite word of “the poor in spirit” is “the proud in spirit.” The proud in spirit is the one who do not acknowledge that they are totally helpless and hopeless without God’s mercy. Wait a minute! Am I totally helpless or hopeless? What a discouraging and negative view it is? I believe I can do something. I am still young. I have hope for my future. When people encourage others, especially to the youngsters, they say, “Trust in yourself or believe in yourself, you can do it!” Apostle Paul also said similar things. He said,”I can do everything.” However, he added “in God who gives me strength.”

Let’s think about in a little bit bigger scale. If our Sun stops rising, all human effort is in vain. If our Sun develops more black spots on its surface more than usual, the Earth will be under the Ice Age. If Earth’s temperature increases 10 degree Celsius than now, the Earth will not be habitable for the human being anymore. How about our spiritual and moral conditions? We might think we are morally good or at least better than others by comparing with other sinners. How about when we stand before God? How are we going to be viewed in God’s eyes? In this room, we don’t see anything in the air. What if a bright sunlight comes into this room? We will see a lot of dusts in the air. In revelation ch1 V14 describes Jesus’ eyes by saying, “His eyes were like blazing fire.” His eyes can see all our ugly and disgusting sins. What if God opens our eyes and we could see the germs? Remember the sanitizer commercial on T.V. They show people’s hands and mouth that thousands of germs are crawling all over the place. Sin is like germs that attached to our body and mind. We develop sinful thought every day, and every hour. We are totally helpless in “not committing sins” before God. Although we have good intention, we have no strength to do. Worst of all, there will be God’s judgment if we finish our earthly life. Rev ch21 v8 reads, “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars- their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

To be poor in spirit mean to recognize one’s spiritual poverty apart from God. It is to know oneself as one really is lost and hopeless. In Lk ch15, Jesus compared us as lost sheep, lost coin, lost son. We know the story of lost son(prodigal son). When he hit the rock-bottom after squandering all his wealth, he repented and came back to his father’s house acknowledging that he was the hopeless sinner. Was he not lost when he was in his father’s house? Yes, he was already lost before he had left his father’s house. However, his unbearable misery outside the father’s house helped him to realize that he was sinner and lost. God want us to know that we are hopeless sinners before we hit the rock bottom. I know that when we are sentenced as terminal stage of cancer patient or when we are bankrupted or got serious accident, we will appeal our helplessness to God. We can be blinded by our own success or youth and become proud in spirit. And also not everyone becomes poor in spirit in their hopeless and miserable situation. To be poor in spirit does not necessarily depend on human conditions. It is God’s gift. When we ask God earnestly in our prayer, it will be given to us.

Some people have a natural tendency to be humble. But that’s not what Jesus was talking about. Although they may be humanly humble, not offending anybody and acting very nice and polite, they may be spiritually very proud, not knowing that they are sinners before God. Unless we recognize that we are totally helpless and miserable sinners before God, we cannot be poor in spirit and enter the kingdom of heaven.

Humility is the foundation of all Christian characteristics. It’s no wonder that Jesus put humility first in his sermon. Saint Paul also said in Philippians 2:5-7, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”

Then why are many Christians still proud? It’s because we forget that we are totally helpless without God’s mercy and grace. Saint Paul worked very hard as a Bible teacher and missionary. The Lord blessed his sacrificial life of mission abundantly. He was the best and the most fruitful among the apostles. Yet, he didn’t take pride in his achievement. Instead, he said, “I know that nothing good lives in me.”(Ro 7:18) He also said to his spiritual son, Timothy, that he was the chief of sinners. (1 Tim 1:15) Most of all, he considered all of his religious and spiritual achievements rubbish, meaning that they were dung, a hindrance to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ. (Phil 3:8) Paul was humble in spirit.

By nature, we cannot become poor in spirit. We naturally become proud and arrogant. So we must struggle to humble ourselves before God all the time. In order to be poor in spirit, we need to know Jesus more. In order to be poor in spirit, we need to experience God’s glory. Then we can consider all human achievement as rubbish. Then we can seek God’s eternal blessing with humble heart. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Then How do we know if we are genuinely humble? There are several indicators.

First, If we are truly humble in spirit, we will not be preoccupied with ourselves. To a humble man, self is no longer important. Christ has become the most important. If we are self-centered, we are not humble yet. (Gal 2:20)

Second. If we are genuinely humble in spirit, we will not complain about our situation no matter how bad it may become. (I pe 4:16)
Third, when we are genuinely humble in spirit, we will consider others better and more important than ourselves (Phil 2:3)

Last of all, if we are genuinely humble in spirit, we will spend much more time in prayer and praise and thanksgiving for his grace.
Our Lord wants to bless us as we recognize our spiritual poverty before God so that we can be rich in his grace. May the Lord help us to be humble in his presence every moment and grow in his image and be a living example of our Lord Jesus and be a blessing to many people. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

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