The Poor in Spirit - Grace London | Sermons

Speaker 1 Can I just encourage you to open your Bibles? We're going to open to Matthew Chapter 5 and Luke chapter 18. Let me Begin by reading see from Luke 18. We're going to read from verse 9 through to verse 14, their familiar Parable. He also told this Parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Two men went up into the temple, to pray, one, a Pharisee and the other a tax collector and the Pharisee standing by himself prayed. Thus God, I thank you that. I'm not like other men, extortioners unjust adulterers or even Even like this tax collector, I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get, but the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you this man went down to his house Justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted I think there are few Parables that Jesus of Jesus, which really get to the very core and essence of the Gospel. I think a powered was like, those are the Prodigal Son and the sheep and so on. But this is one of those it gets right at the heart of things. So we're going to read also from Matthew Chapter 5 and just read the first 11 verses there, seeing the crowds he went up on the mountain and when he sat down his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and taught them saying. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be? Speaker 2 Comforted Speaker 1 blessed. Are the meek for they shall inherit the Speaker 2 earth. Speaker 1 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied. Blessed, are the merciful for they shall receive Mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake? For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And blessed? Are you when others are a vile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account rejoice, and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for. So they persecuted the prophets who were Speaker 2 before you Speaker 1 up until now we've been looking at this series building with God where we're looking through 1 Chronicles, 29, and looking at some of the various ways in which God would call this people to be involved with the building of his church or if his Temple is worldwide Temple, the people of God in the earth and we finished there but one is start something brand-new and my intention is to begin a series working through The Sermon on the Mount. Now I anticipate it would take us quite a while to get through its three long chapters and full of so much. Meet that. It's going to take a little bit of time, so I plan to break it up with other things as we go along. But I want to just begin with a very, a few brief remarks, just to outline some of my thinking about this. And before we get into the detail of what we're going to look at today, first of all, Jesus said at the end of The Sermon on the Mount that, The man is wise, who builds on the Rock by doing his teaching rather than the person who builds on the sound. And we know that the supply is on a, very personal level Jesus is talking to you and he's saying Speaker 2 the Euro Speaker 1 wise person if you listen to what he has to say and build your life upon what he teaches. And therefore also upon Him, Jesus doesn't separate himself from his teaching. He was so in line with this teaching and always he had Integrity which is to have a Oneness that There you can't divide him. From his teaching. Christ is himself called the word of God. So, to build upon his word is to build upon the person's to build upon him. And we know this isn't just true for you as an individual. It's also true for churches a church which isn't built on the gospel and on the word of God. And on Jesus himself is not a church. It doesn't matter how many times they say or sing the name of Jesus without the truth of what Jesus taught. In all thats its sharp edge analysis, and sometimes offensiveness sometimes amazing Comfort, but without the truth of it, it's not a church. On the other hand, those who want to build a real church, I'll going to be disciples. It's described here that says in verse 1, that the disciples came to him is what we're doing. When we're starting churches, we're wanting to form communities of people who want to be Disciples of Jesus, or who are, who are discovering, what it means to be a disciple of Jesus who come to him. Um and then listen to him. He opened his mouth and taught them. It says, so my hope as we begin to plow Through The Sermon on the Mount, which contains some of the most world-changing words that have ever been spoken is it's going to form. It's going to be a kind of an Ville against which the life of this church is hammered out. You know, how in a blacksmith's Workshop. I'm sure none of us have ever seen one of these. Practice may be an Asterix cartoons or on TV, but you see these metal cast iron blocks called anvils against which the blacksmith hammers out, the metal to get the shape and form that he's after. Well, when we're looking at the words of Christ in The Sermon on the Mount, this sermon is the Anvil against which your life is going to be battered and sometimes you're going to feel a little bit bruised and sometimes you're going to find that your come out, more beautiful and sharper as a result. And certainly it's going to have an Act on us as a church. So that's my hope and intention and that's all I want to say about the series in general. Now, we're going to dig into the Beatitudes, over the coming weeks. And let me just say a few brief things about those in general before we start with the first, these are intended by Jesus. I think to be like Proverbs, which are pithy and weighty when Alone and meditated upon. So I don't know if you ever read The Book of Proverbs hands up, if you've ever read any part of the Book of Proverbs. So, when you're reading the Book of Proverbs, one of the things that you find, especially if it's in your kind of daily reading plan. If you follow one of those, is that once you start getting to the proverbial sayings, it's really hard to keep reading because there's absolutely no connection between 1 and the next every thought is self-contained and they demand that you stop and think about them. Now, the Beatitudes on a self. Containers that but they contain wait within every sentence, which is supposed to be meditated upon thought upon and chewed upon in great detail. And that's what I hope and intend to do over the coming weeks. And we're going to begin. Of course, with the first, 1 blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. I Think Jesus as well. Utter these things in a way that's kind of poetic, so that there'd be more memorable. So they stick in our minds, I'm not sure if you've ever attempted to memorize scripture, but this might be a good place to start if you Speaker 2 haven't. Speaker 1 And even if you don't make an effort to memorize them off in the Beatitudes, just sticking your brain anyway, just because they are, they're kind of sticky. They just there like that. Another thing I would just say about these though is that they are every one of these sayings is is counter-intuitive and countercultural. I mean by that, that they don't articulate a way of thinking that comes naturally to the Speaker 2 human mind and the human heart. Speaker 1 And they don't articulate a way of living either that comes naturally to any of us, they're counterintuitive. So when Jesus says something like blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. When you begin to understand something of what he means there, you realize, firstly, this is something nobody else has ever said. And no one else could could say they wouldn't have, this isn't something that you can just think up out of your own brain. It's also goes against everything natural inside us. It's not a natural way of living. There's no natural human tendency to be meek in the way that Jesus meant it. Now, I know some of you are thinking why I know plenty of people who are Meek kind of retiring timid people who want to hide in the background but when you begin to understand what Jesus meant by meekness you realize it's not just in natural personality type thing. I know some of us are more or less like that in a natural sense. Something Supernatural, something spiritual, and not something that would come easily to any of us if it were not Birth by the holy spirit. So we're talking here about stuff which is counter-intuitive, it runs against the natural way of human thinking and therefore as a result it's also countercultural it's not like if you went out into the world today into a city like London, you would find people saying that meekness is the way forward is the way to go on. The contrary, if you go into a job interview, You know, that the last thing you want to do is present yourself as a Meek person. You know, if you take this literally just saying the meek inherit the earth and meet other people who who get ahead in life in a very literal sense and the reality is no one thinks Speaker 2 that way in London today. Do they Speaker 1 if you work in sales, your boss is going to be telling you be aggressive, push harder. If you work in law, they're going to be say, tighten the screws down, bleed, your opponent to death. Make sure you get that. There is no leeway and that you win at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what. Field you work in. I don't care where it is. No one is going to tell you to be meek and the same could be true of any of these things here. No one's going around. Preaching the virtues of peacemaking in the way that Jesus intended it here of Mercy in the way that he intended it or if hungering and thirsting for righteousness. So these things are going to cut across everything that we naturally think another thing I would just say generally here is that the Beatitudes a more and this is really important to grasp their more descriptions than commands. A lot of people, look at what happened, When Jesus stood up and preached on the mountain that day and think that what he was doing, was kind of replacing the law of Moses, and Moses received the law and a mountain, The Ten Commandments and so on. And here we are, Jesus is standing on a mountain. He's the new Moses, he's preaching a new law. It's a replaces all that went before him, and that's actually a contradiction to what Jesus says he does. He didn't come to overthrow the Lord but to fulfill it and moreover, if you know anything about Christ and his teaching, if you know anything about the Gospel. Jesus didn't just want to lay down for us. A new law to live by that was even harder than the old Speaker 2 one. Speaker 1 So we're not looking here at a new law were looking rather at a description of what Jesus saw when he saw his Speaker 2 kingdom. In other words, this is the Speaker 1 character that God puts into Speaker 2 his people into you into me. Speaker 1 And that's an incredible and profound thing. When you realize this is not something to strive towards, but rather something that God supernaturally bursts inside us. What about this first one? Then what about this? Beatitude blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. You'll have to excuse me. If I am any point incoherent I'm struggling on lack of sleep. I did promise Chloe that I wouldn't whinge about that but here I'm going on about it. This versatile, many people have said that there's a kind of logical sequence of the Beatitudes so that there's a kind of progression. You can see a pattern where Jesus begins here, and we're going to see. This is the Gateway poverty of spirit being poor and Spirits, the Gateway into the Christian Life and then you see a progression that runs through first. The early Beatitudes have more to do with your relationship toward God. For example, the later ones have more to do with our conduct towards other people. So we're going to see something of that but we need to just make some Defying points here. When Jesus is talking about being poor in spirit, he doesn't, he's not talking about how much money you have and, and material poverty. I know in Luke's gospel that says, blessed are the poor and it says, woe to those who are rich and whether or not Jesus was teaching something different on that occasion, or whether he was using it metaphorically. I'm not sure. But certainly in this occasion and Matthew 5, in the thing, we're talking about here, he's speaking about something much more About your attitude and manner of thinking and living before. God blessed are the poor in spirit. He says The way Martin lloyd-jones, put it is this. It really means an emptying. We cannot be filled until we are first empty. You cannot fill with new wine a vessel which is partly filled already with old wine until the old wine has been poured out. That's the heart of what this beatitude is about. Jesus is talking about a spiritual Dano Me by which A Christian is someone who realizes that everything that was of them. All their effort, all their spiritual worth as it were has to be emptied out into in order to receive something from God. What then is it that he's calling us to if we're to be poor in spirit? Why is it that? He says that these are blessed people. I want to give you three reasons The first is that the poorest being poor in spirit is the way in to the Christian Life. Did you just flick over to that, Parable? We looked at and Luke 18. It's describing Speaker 2 here. Speaker 1 In the most Punchy and Powerful way. The kind of religion that God hates. The kind of spirituality that God despises. If we were to put it in modern terms, it might be a person Speaker 2 who Speaker 1 Says I go to, I go to Grace London every week and I attend homegroup, every Wednesday and I always bring cakes when I'm asked to and I always turn up for the fellowship time at 3:30. These are all great things by the way, I'm not I'm not discouraging them. I'm very nice and I compliment the preacher and I compliment the worship leader and I smile every time we gather and I pay my tithe and I do this that and the other. And he says, the Pharisee says, I thank you that I'm not like other men. This is the kind of religion that Christ came to destroy. a way of thinking, a way of doing Speaker 2 spirituality, Speaker 1 That at its heart has this problem. What problem do you think it is? It's a problem of Pride, Speaker 2 isn't it? You might think it's Speaker 1 a bit of a caricature you might think look, he's painting such an extreme picture here. When he describes his Pharisee going up and saying I thank you that I'm not like other men and he then starts boasting about all things he does and maybe it is a caricature. But ask yourself this Speaker 2 question. Speaker 1 If you strip away any apparent. Humility. In religion by people look like nice decent people. At the heart of it is a competitive. Prideful desire to be better. Better than other people. I don't care how virtuous the religious veneer is at the heart of it is always this effort to improve yourself on a level with the people. You see, around you to be better than others. That's what religion is. And does to the human heart, it forces you to make these kind of horizontal comparisons between you and other people. It's a gauge yourself on the balance of my, my better than him on my worse than him. How am I doing? And then to meet and then to make that assessment the truth about where you're at, spiritually, That's how religion functions, that's how it works. I don't care if it is a bit of a caricature here. It's getting right? It's exposing the heart of what a religious mentality Speaker 2 is. Speaker 1 And Jesus wanted to destroy that. He teaches us. That in the end, that kind of a person has Speaker 2 nothing before. God. Speaker 1 And actually Christianity's unique in teaching this way thinking, in trying to destroy this way of of one-upmanship and of comparing yourselves horizontally with other people. And it does it in one Fell Swoop by teaching you that. You shouldn't compare yourself to other people. You should compare yourself to God. and when you begin to read the revelation of who Jesus is in the gospels and you realize what righteousness is when you see it in the face of Christ, When you read God's word and you see the kinds of things that God loves and the kinds of things that he Speaker 2 hates, when you begin to look Speaker 1 at your own heart. And this should be true of every one of us, I'm not singling you out. I mean, me, I mean, you, I mean all of us when you start to look into your own heart, you're going to see Darkness, you're going to see stuff that you don't like. Stuff that you would like to cover up and that you feel embarrassed about or shamed Speaker 2 about stuff, which If Speaker 1 people could could see Speaker 2 wood Speaker 1 in your mind and most likely true Speaker 2 would turn people off of you. Speaker 1 It's true of all of us, isn't it? And so Christ doesn't want us just to compare ourselves to others. How am I doing? You know, in comparison with others because I look a little bit holier than them, he wants us to look at God and think before a holy God, who sees everything you see is not just my actions, but the motives that lie behind my actions. I'm not so great. After all. There's something very wrong with me. That my heart is a mixed thing. And so Christianity. The message of Jesus is that he wants to force us to realize in his own language here. How Speaker 2 spiritually poor we are. That you're not wealthy but in your bank account. It's not like young, Speaker 1 massively in the black, but that you're in the red. and so, on the words of the tax collector, The prayer goes up to God, as he's beating his breast, he says God be merciful to Speaker 2 me a sinner. That. Speaker 1 Is the first Speaker 2 step toward Speaker 1 God. That is the recognition, the honest recognition of where you're at. And it's Speaker 2 not Speaker 1 It's not that Christ wants to crush you. It's not that he wants to push your face in the dirt and make you feel terrible about yourself, is that he wants to continue to confront the truth, the reality and that in doing. So there is enormous Comfort Beyond imagination because his promises go with this. He says unless you become like a little child, you can't enter the kingdom. And I think that what is identifying there? Is it children utterly dependent Speaker 2 creatures? Speaker 1 My son didn't even get his own seat on the aircraft. He had to sit on me. Speaker 2 Lich Speaker 1 We are totally dependent on those who nurture and nourish us. And so, to be poor in spirit is merely to Speaker 2 acknowledge That you don't have anything to offer God. Speaker 1 Do your hands are empty. This is why I say that when he says blessed are the poor in spirit, it is first of all, the way into the Christian life, because you nobody becomes a Christian, nobody gets near to God, without recognizing their spiritual poverty, first of all, but it doesn't end. There is secondly, also, the way on in the Christian Life, You see, although we can see something of a progression happening in these Beatitudes. So, we could say, the first beatitude is the very start. The very thing that's necessary for you to become a Christian. You've got to recognize your spiritual poverty. It's not as though. When you become a Christian, you start to grow up into Christ. You leave that behind you. Very often. I think, as Christians we find the temptation to do that very Speaker 2 thing Speaker 1 that whereas maybe you can recall when you got saved. I know that's not true. For all of us. We have different stories but for some people, you can recall, when you got saving, you think at that point in my life I was I was spiritually poor, the things have changed for me. Now I'm doing really well now and the Temptation is that whereas we thought it's that's how we enter the Christian Life, we get to a point where we think we're doing good. We're Nothing we're doing well and I suppose in one sense, there's truth to that you want to read your Bible. There's a lot that God says about you. That reshapes your identity says, you're now child of God, that you're adopted that you're Justified. All of these things are true, but never should those things. Contradict this fundamental reality that you have to continue to be someone who is poor in spirit before the Living God, I think that we tend to therefore become rich in spirit in this to use the same analogy and there are two signs that that can become true of you. The first is that you, you can begin to feel a little bit Superior to other some of the people not necessarily everyone else. But compared to some people, the you can always look around you and find someone that you might feel a little bit judgmental towards, that's a sign. That you become spiritually, proud when we judge others. The other sign that this become true of you is that you can begin to feel crushed under the weight of your failure and your lack of doing well, which only shows that you're trying to do something or trying to produce something, you're trying to form something that you can give to God and you're not so happy with your Speaker 2 performance. Speaker 1 Both of these whether it's Pride or whether it's being crushed or indicators that your heart is trying to. You're trying to build your identity on what you can do before the Living Speaker 2 God. Speaker 1 And Christ says you've got to recall that you are poor that you are spiritually, poor. And that God is near to the poor that he wants to bless the poor that he wants to exalt the poor. So it's not just the weight into the Christian Life. It's also the way on in the Christian Life The whenever things aren't quite right with you spiritually, I think nine times out of 10, it comes back to this. The God wants you to approach him again, as a child. In poverty of spirit and honesty. you'll see this kind Speaker 2 of Speaker 1 poverty of spirit, all the way through the Psalms in the honesty and the reality of the spiritual reality, of the Speaker 2 psalmist, Speaker 1 who lament their failures or lament the sense of being distant from Speaker 2 God. Speaker 1 Who at times just recognize that without God's intervention. Right here. Right Speaker 2 now. We're dead, were dead Speaker 1 meat. This is spiritual poverty is coming before, God, and just Speaker 2 constantly consistently acknowledging that you need him. And that as that, develop some grows and as you become more increasingly aware of this absolute lack without him. You grow up into him. And that's the Paradox. That the more childlike you become, the more mature, you become as a Christian, the more dependent, you are, the more statue you have in Christ. Speaker 1 It's the great irony and the great Paradox of what it means to be a Christian and that brings me on to my final point. It's not only the weigh-in, it's not only the weight on in the Christian life, but this poverty of spirit leads to every blessing in the Speaker 2 Christian Life, Speaker 1 if you cover the blessings of God on you and inexperience and in your life, then this is what Christ tells you to do. Speaker 2 To come to him in poverty of spirit. Speaker 1 Because he says for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Do you realize that in those few short words is the sum Speaker 2 total of everything that God wants to give you? Speaker 1 This is nothing. We should just skim over or ignore. It's something we should sit on and wait with for a while. I think what is it that Christ is promising here, attaching to this Speaker 2 poverty of spirit this humility before God, and the answer is everything. Speaker 1 it begins of course with What I've been talking about, what it means to have your status change before God, from a foreigner, someone who was outside his kingdom, who is trying to make it on your own to someone who is now adopted into his family. Whose justified, in other words, your declared clean and your sin wiped away. And that you have now been saved that. You have been made a right with him. That's part of what it means to to say yours Speaker 2 is the kingdom of heaven. Speaker 1 That God has given you a new status. He has literally saved you. Jesus said about the man in the parable, in Luke 18, He said about the tax collector, The tax collector was not a good man. Here's the great puzzle here. The Pharisee was the kind of guy that if you knew him, if he was in your church, you actually think I want to be like him. He's worthy of imitation, tax collector. Is someone who is visiting your church? You think? I definitely don't want to be like him. He's a pariah, we shouldn't really even talk to him. But Jesus says, I tell you this man, the tax collector went down to his house Justified, rather than the other. There are days when you're going to feel. Speaker 2 Forgetful Speaker 1 of what God has done to save Speaker 2 you. The realities of your Speaker 1 adoption of your justification of being saved. And on those days, you must come back to him, like the tax collector and beat your breast and say, God be merciful to me a sinner. Speaker 2 And in doing Speaker 1 so God will give you fresh assurance that you're his. Child is say I tell you the truth. This this one this person you will go home Justified. at least, every blessing in the Christian Life, also, because If you want to walk in the experiential blessing of God, in other words, knowing his favor on your life. You must be people who cultivate poverty of spirit because God says that he opposes the proud, but gives Grace or favor. It's the same word gives grace and favor to the humble. Now, I don't mean that by being poor in spirit, you're going to naturally have a totally easy life. Jesus never promised that, but what he is saying and there's absolutely clear is that there are people God, the likes to shine upon. And that it's the people who cultivate this humility. Before him, this poverty of spirit who come to him, empty-handed that he might fill them up and it also just finally at this. That this blessing in the Christian Life, theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven refers to your future. It refers to that certain future that you have that you can be totally assured, that you are going to go to heaven. when you talk with people who haven't understood the gospel whether because they're got to church and never quite grasped, it Or because they are part of another Faith or a type of church that no longer preaches. The gospel. One of the things that you will find consistently is that they can never have certainty, never have total assurance that they will be with God in eternity. And it's, let's say if imagine you're talking to someone like that, I, whether it's a Muslim or a Catholic, who's been badly taught and struggled with this or whatever and you say to them, listen, I know with absolute certainty that I'm saved. If I were to die right now, I know without a shadow of a doubt That I'm going to stand for Christ and he's going to accept me into his kingdom. I'm guessing that you might feel like you're sounding like the most arrogant person on the face of the planet, Speaker 2 right? There Speaker 1 has to be prideful to Speaker 2 do that. But I would say the very opposite is true here. Speaker 1 But if Jesus is saying that it's the poor in spirit who get the Kingdom of Heaven. The logic of it is this that those who come empty-handed aren't coming to bring anything to. God, they're coming to receive from him. The righteousness, that is there as a gift. And if you know that, the righteousness that you have, Is given to you by God as a gift. In other words, if you know that your account is full, because Christ, put the cash in, Speaker 2 Then it's not arrogant Speaker 1 to assume that when you stand before God, he's going to receive you. It's the essence of humility. You came to him Speaker 2 empty-handed and he receives you with open arms. On the other Speaker 1 hand, those who have doubt. The only reason why you might be struggling if you do struggle with a lack of assurance. Am I saved? Am I not save? Will guard receive me in the end is because you're trying to build your life on your own works and on your own righteousness. In other words, you're trying to accrue credit to your account. You're trying to be rich in spirit and Jesus says, you will never Speaker 2 save enough. You cannot Speaker 1 And so he says you've got to you got to recognize the you are poor in Speaker 2 spirit. Speaker 1 As I close, let me just ask you a few questions. Are you are you poor in spirit? the real test of this is, Speaker 2 How you react when? Speaker 1 When people criticize your kidneys you Speaker 2 things, are you a defensive person? Speaker 1 It's one of the tests. Speaker 2 Anyway, Speaker 1 how do you feel when people point out sin in your life? Is it something that you own and can say? Yeah, that's true. Or is it something you feel you Speaker 2 bristle with The poor in spirit are people who Speaker 1 live as it were transparent lie before God you know you know Speaker 2 you know that your life for short. But let me ask you another question. Have you felt the Assurance of God's blessing and his love that? He says, blessed are the poor in spirit because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Is this something that you feel when you wake up in the morning that, you know, you're loved that, you know, you're accepted because you should if you're a Christian you absolutely should. And if you don't feel it, maybe it's because God just wants you to shrink down a little bit more. Speaker 1 They become a little bit more, like a child. And to come to him each morning and just no, I have nothing to bring God, but I want to receive this righteousness that comes from you. I want the Kingdom of Speaker 2 Heaven. Let's pray together, shall we? Speaker 1 father, God, I I know Lord that we lot of we desired to hear your truth and hear your word and be changed by it. But Lord, God soften our minds are are easily forgetful of the realities. Even just the fundamental truth that Define Us in all walks of the and I pray Lord that as we get back to the heart of things in the sermon on the mountain in the Beatitudes. So I ask that you would reshape the way we think. Speaker 2 And that you would set us on a course towards spiritual renovation and renewal, and Lord that you would do. Profound and wonderful things in our community life. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. And that you would set us on a course towards spiritual renovation and renewal, and Lord that you would do. Profound and wonderful things in our community life. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.