WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.419 I will extol the Lord at all times. His praise will always be on my lips. 00:00:07.320 --> 00:00:12.519 My soul will boast in the Lord. Let the afflicted hear and rejoice. 00:00:13.560 --> 00:00:17.679 Glorify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. 00:00:19.019 --> 00:00:24.420 I sought the Lord and he answered me. He delivered me from all my fears. 00:00:24.420 --> 00:00:31.360 Those who look to him are radiant. Their faces are never covered with shame. 00:00:32.359 --> 00:00:38.020 This poor man called and the Lord heard him. He saved him out of all his troubles. 00:00:38.939 --> 00:00:44.560 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them. 00:00:45.760 --> 00:00:52.540 Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. 00:00:52.539 --> 00:00:58.659 Fear the Lord, you his saints. For those who fear him lack nothing. 00:00:59.500 --> 00:01:06.180 The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. 00:01:08.180 --> 00:01:16.219 Let's move on to Luke chapter 18 verses 9 to 14. 00:01:16.219 --> 00:01:23.459 So Luke 18, starting from verse 9. 00:01:25.180 --> 00:01:33.019 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable. 00:01:33.019 --> 00:01:37.280 Two men went up to the temple to pray. 00:01:37.780 --> 00:01:41.399 One, a Pharisee, and the other, a tax collector. 00:01:41.979 --> 00:01:45.039 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself. 00:01:45.699 --> 00:01:54.479 God, I thank you that I am not like other men, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 00:01:54.480 --> 00:01:58.900 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. 00:01:59.820 --> 00:02:03.500 But the tax collector stood at a distance. 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:09.340 He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 00:02:09.580 --> 00:02:13.740 God, have mercy on me as sinner. 00:02:13.740 --> 00:02:21.340 I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. 00:02:22.040 --> 00:02:29.500 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. 00:02:31.500 --> 00:02:32.960 This is the word of God. 00:02:35.020 --> 00:02:39.080 Now, let's have a look at this first beatitude. 00:02:39.219 --> 00:02:40.620 Let me read it for us. 00:02:40.620 --> 00:02:45.659 Now, when Jesus saw the crowd, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:49.360 His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. 00:02:49.580 --> 00:02:50.039 He said, 00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:57.180 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 00:03:00.319 --> 00:03:07.280 Many of us face a fork in the road, moral decisions daily. 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:14.400 Decisions that we have to take that will have an impact on ourselves, have an impact on others, 00:03:14.759 --> 00:03:19.039 and will, in some senses, shape the direction of our lives. 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:25.979 And recognising how many moral decisions we make, it's important to ask the question, 00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:27.920 what is it that guides us? 00:03:27.919 --> 00:03:36.079 I think it's true to say that for many people, they are struggling without a moral compass. 00:03:37.139 --> 00:03:39.459 There are no guiding poles. 00:03:40.399 --> 00:03:41.659 Sometimes that's by choice. 00:03:41.779 --> 00:03:47.219 I don't want to listen to any claim to absolute truth or authority. 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:51.339 And with no objective standard to direct. 00:03:51.340 --> 00:04:00.039 Perhaps that's why Jonathan Dodson, in a recent book, suggested that we, certainly in the West, are facing a good crisis. 00:04:00.759 --> 00:04:02.640 What does goodness look like? 00:04:04.219 --> 00:04:08.400 John Stott wrote a very helpful book on the Sermon on the Mount, 00:04:08.460 --> 00:04:14.460 and he argues in that book that the church should be a Christian counterculture. 00:04:14.460 --> 00:04:22.639 That we should be following Jesus' manifesto, as set out in the Sermon on the Mount. 00:04:22.759 --> 00:04:27.800 That the sermon, as a whole, teaches us about life in the kingdom of heaven. 00:04:28.199 --> 00:04:35.379 For those who have repented and believed that Jesus is God's promised King and Saviour, 00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:37.340 now how should we live? 00:04:37.339 --> 00:04:46.199 What are the values, the ethics, the behaviours, the way of speaking and relating that identify the people of God? 00:04:47.459 --> 00:04:53.000 And so right at the beginning of the sermon, Jesus gives us these eight beatitudes. 00:04:53.979 --> 00:05:04.079 Eight core marks of character and conduct that should be true for all and every Christian. 00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:12.019 These are ideals to pursue, which as we'll see, are actually very countercultural. 00:05:13.800 --> 00:05:17.899 And so let's ask ourselves a fundamental question as we begin. 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:19.079 We're thinking about the beatitudes. 00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:20.680 What does it mean to be blessed? 00:05:20.819 --> 00:05:26.399 Eight times Jesus says a certain group of people are blessed. 00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:32.019 Well, the language of blessing is covenant language. 00:05:32.019 --> 00:05:38.259 It speaks to us of the life that God favours, the life God approves of. 00:05:38.740 --> 00:05:42.859 This involves happiness and true joy, but it's more than happiness. 00:05:43.019 --> 00:05:48.319 It speaks of God's objective assessment of a person's life. 00:05:49.699 --> 00:05:57.919 But what we'll see is that pursuing these values will bring us to enjoy the reality of God with us, 00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:03.900 which is the very heart and the goal of the covenant, God's desire to be with his people. 00:06:05.060 --> 00:06:13.060 To live with these values in our lives is a way to enjoy the blessing of God's smile on us. 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:20.879 So let's think about what it means when Jesus says blessed are the poor in spirit. 00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:22.839 What does he mean by that? 00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:31.159 Well, it's to acknowledge spiritual bankruptcy before God. 00:06:31.860 --> 00:06:35.259 It's to come to him in humble dependence. 00:06:36.360 --> 00:06:41.000 This is our most basic posture as Christians. 00:06:41.879 --> 00:06:44.259 Nothing in my hands I bring. 00:06:44.899 --> 00:06:47.959 Simply to your cross I cling. 00:06:47.959 --> 00:06:53.639 It's the ideas behind the hymn Rock of Ages that we will sing. 00:06:53.979 --> 00:06:56.680 We can look to the Bible for some examples of this. 00:06:56.939 --> 00:07:00.779 So Daniel read from us a Psalm of David, Psalm 34. 00:07:01.379 --> 00:07:03.180 And what's happening there in Psalm 34? 00:07:03.339 --> 00:07:09.500 Here is David singing of deliverance, being delivered from enemies and threat and accusation. 00:07:09.500 --> 00:07:17.019 And he acknowledges he is the poor man with no hope other than his trust in God. 00:07:18.060 --> 00:07:26.459 He is saved and honoured because he depends and trusts in his God. 00:07:26.459 --> 00:07:31.120 On Sunday morning we thought about Psalm 32. 00:07:32.019 --> 00:07:40.159 Psalm 32 speaks of a believer being restored to fellowship with God after sinning. 00:07:41.019 --> 00:07:43.859 And that's entirely a gift of God's grace. 00:07:44.379 --> 00:07:47.979 And there's a sense of joy at that amazing blessing. 00:07:47.980 --> 00:07:56.780 And so there's this understanding in the life of David that salvation from beginning to end is a gift of God's mercy and grace. 00:07:57.200 --> 00:08:01.340 And he is happy to embrace his spiritual poverty and need. 00:08:01.339 --> 00:08:09.500 We see this too laid out in the teaching of Jesus, not just in our beatitude. 00:08:09.500 --> 00:08:19.159 So again Daniel read the parable of the prayers of the Pharisee and the tax collector. 00:08:20.199 --> 00:08:25.399 We could summarise the prayer of the Pharisee in a sense as he is coming before God. 00:08:25.399 --> 00:08:29.599 But he's talking about himself and he's saying, God I'm a spiritual success story. 00:08:30.319 --> 00:08:31.799 I'm not like any of the others. 00:08:33.199 --> 00:08:35.519 Compare that with the tax collector. 00:08:36.860 --> 00:08:38.240 Who beats his breast. 00:08:39.860 --> 00:08:42.419 Lowers his head and acknowledges before God. 00:08:42.659 --> 00:08:45.399 I am and I have nothing. 00:08:46.259 --> 00:08:48.240 And he pleads for mercy. 00:08:48.620 --> 00:08:51.100 He doesn't claim a right to that. 00:08:51.159 --> 00:08:54.340 But he pleads God's mercy as a sinner. 00:08:54.340 --> 00:08:56.879 He knows himself. 00:08:59.139 --> 00:09:08.259 And the sting of the tail for those listening as Jesus describes it is that the one who is justified, the one who has right standing before God, 00:09:08.680 --> 00:09:14.700 it is the sinner who acknowledges he is spiritually bankrupt and who looks to God for mercy. 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:19.240 We see it too in the parable of the prodigal son. 00:09:19.240 --> 00:09:29.680 Now remember that son who treated his father shamefully, went off and spent half the family money on reckless living and he finds himself in a desperately poor situation. 00:09:30.899 --> 00:09:33.680 And Jesus says he came to his senses. 00:09:36.379 --> 00:09:37.840 Compare it with the elder brother. 00:09:37.840 --> 00:09:41.780 The elder brother at the end of the story who comes to his father all angry. 00:09:41.899 --> 00:09:43.180 He says, you know, I've been slaving away. 00:09:43.280 --> 00:09:44.340 I deserve a feast. 00:09:44.460 --> 00:09:45.920 I deserve something from you. 00:09:46.420 --> 00:09:47.379 The prodigal. 00:09:48.120 --> 00:09:51.680 As he comes home, he comes home determined to confess. 00:09:52.379 --> 00:09:54.240 I have sinned before heaven and before you. 00:09:54.320 --> 00:09:56.420 I am no longer worthy to be called a son. 00:09:56.540 --> 00:09:57.899 Make me a servant. 00:09:58.420 --> 00:10:03.460 His humbling, his acknowledging his spiritual bankruptcy and having no claim. 00:10:03.460 --> 00:10:07.560 And simply confessing to his father who enjoys the feast. 00:10:08.680 --> 00:10:10.160 It's the moral wreck. 00:10:10.900 --> 00:10:14.300 The one who is honest and who seeks for mercy. 00:10:15.280 --> 00:10:20.100 If you're listening on Sunday morning, maybe you'll remember Augustine. 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:26.220 Who said the beginning of knowledge is to know oneself to be a sinner. 00:10:26.800 --> 00:10:31.139 And by extension, to know God to be a merciful saviour. 00:10:31.139 --> 00:10:39.419 So the poor in spirit are those who have had their illusions shattered. 00:10:40.360 --> 00:10:42.220 By a revelation from God. 00:10:42.299 --> 00:10:43.519 By the grace of God. 00:10:44.139 --> 00:10:48.460 So not standing and claiming I am good and upright. 00:10:48.620 --> 00:10:52.860 Rather acknowledging I am not good before a holy and perfect God. 00:10:52.860 --> 00:10:55.980 Rather than claiming rights. 00:10:56.700 --> 00:11:01.860 The poor in spirit acknowledges God is not obliged to accept me. 00:11:02.419 --> 00:11:06.279 All I have or all I can claim is from his mercy. 00:11:07.680 --> 00:11:13.700 Rather than the self-righteous imagining there is a ladder of achievement to get to heaven, to get to God. 00:11:13.700 --> 00:11:20.580 The poor in spirit recognises I cannot and I do not earn God's favour. 00:11:21.500 --> 00:11:29.879 So the humble in spirit, the poor in spirit acknowledge that they desperately need God's rescue. 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:33.879 And there's a wonderful paradox in this beatitude. 00:11:34.520 --> 00:11:38.140 Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit. 00:11:38.139 --> 00:11:40.000 For theirs is the kingdom. 00:11:40.460 --> 00:11:47.600 To embrace that poverty is the path to riches and to the kingdom of heaven. 00:11:49.019 --> 00:11:51.399 But maybe thinking about this, you have a question. 00:11:51.539 --> 00:11:55.199 How is that a life of blessing? 00:11:56.039 --> 00:12:01.399 How does admitting that we are weak and helpless, how is that a good thing? 00:12:01.399 --> 00:12:05.639 And this is the challenge to our way of thinking. 00:12:05.779 --> 00:12:10.539 This is where Jesus presents a Christian counterculture. 00:12:11.459 --> 00:12:15.799 Because we live in what's sometimes known as the selfie generation. 00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:19.439 Sometimes known as the age of big me. 00:12:20.500 --> 00:12:24.879 A time when we are encouraged to focus on our personal brand. 00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:32.159 When there is so much attention on finding your true and authentic self. 00:12:32.860 --> 00:12:40.700 And that we have to construct and reconstruct multiple identities for ourselves. 00:12:40.779 --> 00:12:43.779 Because we are central. 00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:50.139 Do you notice how different that is from the language of Jesus? 00:12:50.139 --> 00:12:52.919 The world encourages us to value. 00:12:53.620 --> 00:12:54.399 Find yourself. 00:12:54.919 --> 00:12:56.759 Not die to self. 00:12:58.279 --> 00:12:59.720 Prove yourself. 00:13:00.360 --> 00:13:01.559 Not humble yourself. 00:13:02.620 --> 00:13:04.199 Be true to yourself. 00:13:04.340 --> 00:13:06.139 Not submit to God. 00:13:06.740 --> 00:13:08.720 And admit your need. 00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:14.019 So again, how can we say being poor in spirit is blessed? 00:13:14.019 --> 00:13:22.379 I think one reason is because acknowledging our poverty of spirit deals with our greatest problem. 00:13:23.659 --> 00:13:28.559 See, fundamentally, your problem and mine is not a failure to love ourselves. 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:32.960 Despite all the language of self-help psychology and counseling. 00:13:33.659 --> 00:13:36.000 We spend so much time and attention on that. 00:13:36.100 --> 00:13:41.759 But our greatest failure, our greatest offense, is our failure to love God. 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:48.700 The great offense is that we have treated our creator shamefully. 00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:53.100 We have engaged in open rebellion. 00:13:53.779 --> 00:13:55.700 We have taken to the streets. 00:13:55.840 --> 00:13:57.779 We have shaken our fist. 00:13:58.139 --> 00:14:06.419 We have overthrown God so that we might sit on the throne of our own lives. 00:14:06.419 --> 00:14:10.919 To place self at the center where God and God alone deserves to be. 00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:17.759 And Jesus, in his words, corrects that wrong thinking. 00:14:18.279 --> 00:14:25.519 So that we can understand to be truly me means I need humility before God, my creator. 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:32.939 And I need to be reconciled to that one relationship above all others that truly matters. 00:14:32.940 --> 00:14:39.700 So that we would cry, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 00:14:40.760 --> 00:14:47.080 That like the tax collector, we would pray, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. 00:14:47.080 --> 00:14:56.420 That rather than running from Jesus, we would run to King Jesus for redemption and for restoration. 00:14:56.420 --> 00:15:03.160 Because what Jesus has come to do on the cross in taking our sins and taking that which separates 00:15:03.160 --> 00:15:08.460 and that which brings on us the wrath of God is our greatest need. 00:15:08.460 --> 00:15:12.440 And acknowledging that deals with our greatest problem. 00:15:15.720 --> 00:15:23.200 Jesus can also say the poor in spirit are blessed because he promises the greatest reward. 00:15:24.840 --> 00:15:25.680 What does he say? 00:15:25.780 --> 00:15:30.700 He says to acknowledge spiritual poverty and to come with empty hands 00:15:30.700 --> 00:15:37.180 and to look to God for salvation from beginning to end is to receive blessing. 00:15:37.860 --> 00:15:38.840 And what's that blessing? 00:15:39.620 --> 00:15:42.660 It's the blessing of the kingdom of heaven. 00:15:43.680 --> 00:15:44.620 So what is that? 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:55.080 It's life under the rule of God, in relationship with God, enjoying the favour and blessing of God. 00:15:55.080 --> 00:15:59.560 That's life as it is meant to be lived. 00:16:00.639 --> 00:16:05.700 And that's the great hope of the future that we can enjoy in part now in the present. 00:16:05.820 --> 00:16:09.660 And that, according to Jesus, is true riches. 00:16:09.920 --> 00:16:11.300 And this is promise. 00:16:12.300 --> 00:16:16.379 When we humble ourselves and acknowledge our spiritual need, 00:16:16.440 --> 00:16:18.700 when we look to God for mercy and for grace, 00:16:18.800 --> 00:16:22.020 then we will receive the kingdom of heaven. 00:16:22.259 --> 00:16:23.080 Statement of fact. 00:16:23.080 --> 00:16:28.520 Now compare that with the exhausting nature of find yourself and prove yourself. 00:16:29.580 --> 00:16:31.460 And if you've lived that way, 00:16:32.060 --> 00:16:37.840 trying to prove yourself either before God or before your peers or people in your workplace, 00:16:37.920 --> 00:16:40.820 you will understand how exhausting that is. 00:16:40.940 --> 00:16:46.060 There's that rollercoaster of pride or despair because it's all on us. 00:16:46.180 --> 00:16:50.940 So on our good days, we feel wonderful because we outperform all our colleagues 00:16:50.940 --> 00:16:55.260 and our paper gets published and we receive accolades. 00:16:55.340 --> 00:17:00.980 But then other times there's despair because we fail terribly. 00:17:01.560 --> 00:17:05.259 We miss that promotion, whatever it might be. 00:17:05.259 --> 00:17:09.359 It's exhausting when life is all on us. 00:17:10.539 --> 00:17:12.339 But here's the great promise of this beatitude. 00:17:12.539 --> 00:17:16.400 Jesus is the king who offers you the keys to the kingdom. 00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:24.599 Though we are poor, we are invited to the king of infinite riches, 00:17:24.759 --> 00:17:27.740 to be satisfied, to find joy in him. 00:17:27.740 --> 00:17:31.480 So that for those who have been born again, 00:17:31.559 --> 00:17:35.660 and Jesus is speaking to those who have already received new life, 00:17:36.279 --> 00:17:38.359 that for those who have the eyes of faith, 00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:43.180 there is nothing better than life with God. 00:17:44.599 --> 00:17:46.160 Sinclair Ferguson put it this way, 00:17:46.160 --> 00:18:08.400 Jesus in Luke chapter 4. 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:11.980 So after the beginnings of his public ministry, 00:18:12.759 --> 00:18:15.259 he comes to his hometown in Nazareth. 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:24.540 And he opens up, we're told, the scroll at Isaiah chapter 61, 00:18:25.980 --> 00:18:27.380 which begins, 00:18:27.580 --> 00:18:29.740 The Spirit of the Lord is on me, 00:18:30.220 --> 00:18:35.080 because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. 00:18:35.500 --> 00:18:38.279 He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners 00:18:38.279 --> 00:18:40.580 and recovery of sight for the blind, 00:18:40.860 --> 00:18:42.620 to set the oppressed free, 00:18:42.620 --> 00:18:45.700 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour, 00:18:45.700 --> 00:18:47.039 for this wonderful picture, 00:18:47.039 --> 00:18:50.200 that the hope of the poor in spirit, 00:18:50.360 --> 00:18:52.140 the spiritually bankrupt, 00:18:52.319 --> 00:18:56.799 the desperate, the unable to please God and to attain God's favour, 00:18:56.920 --> 00:18:59.420 is that Jesus has come, 00:18:59.920 --> 00:19:01.799 in the power of the Spirit, 00:19:02.120 --> 00:19:03.880 to bring good news. 00:19:04.920 --> 00:19:08.799 To bring good news as the king who brings in the kingdom. 00:19:08.799 --> 00:19:12.059 And then what does Jesus do immediately after that? 00:19:12.379 --> 00:19:16.539 He drives out those with evil spirits. 00:19:17.339 --> 00:19:20.000 Those who are utterly helpless 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:23.539 and desperately needing rescue. 00:19:24.539 --> 00:19:26.419 And Jesus from the beginning shows, 00:19:26.799 --> 00:19:28.460 here's what my kingdom is about. 00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:32.559 It's bringing hope to those who are hopeless 00:19:32.559 --> 00:19:34.419 before God 00:19:34.419 --> 00:19:36.460 and who are willing to acknowledge that. 00:19:38.899 --> 00:19:41.960 In a world that's focused on self, 00:19:42.899 --> 00:19:44.440 will you and I 00:19:44.440 --> 00:19:45.779 be ready 00:19:45.779 --> 00:19:47.480 to acknowledge 00:19:47.480 --> 00:19:50.099 our spiritual bankruptcy 00:19:50.099 --> 00:19:53.399 and the reality that everything 00:19:53.399 --> 00:19:55.259 that we have and we need 00:19:55.259 --> 00:19:57.259 comes only 00:19:57.259 --> 00:19:58.619 from God. 00:19:58.619 --> 00:20:00.199 Let's pray. 00:20:02.199 --> 00:20:03.419 Lord God, 00:20:03.579 --> 00:20:05.439 we recognise the challenge 00:20:05.439 --> 00:20:08.319 of this first beatitude. 00:20:09.059 --> 00:20:10.119 We are by nature 00:20:10.119 --> 00:20:12.459 proud and self-centred people 00:20:12.459 --> 00:20:13.699 in so many ways. 00:20:14.799 --> 00:20:16.739 But we ask that you would show us 00:20:16.739 --> 00:20:19.399 the importance of 00:20:19.399 --> 00:20:21.539 being poor in spirit 00:20:21.539 --> 00:20:23.959 and coming with empty hands 00:20:23.959 --> 00:20:24.839 and asking you 00:20:24.839 --> 00:20:26.159 to fill us 00:20:26.159 --> 00:20:28.379 and recognising that we are 00:20:28.379 --> 00:20:29.599 a great sinner 00:20:29.599 --> 00:20:32.359 but that you are a great saviour. 00:20:32.899 --> 00:20:34.359 Thank you for King Jesus. 00:20:35.059 --> 00:20:35.959 Thank you for his 00:20:35.959 --> 00:20:37.699 perfectly humble 00:20:37.699 --> 00:20:38.799 and obedient life. 00:20:39.439 --> 00:20:40.259 Thank you for his 00:20:40.259 --> 00:20:41.559 sacrificial death. 00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:43.199 Thank you for the victory 00:20:43.199 --> 00:20:44.439 of his resurrection. 00:20:45.559 --> 00:20:46.519 May you help us 00:20:46.519 --> 00:20:47.879 to trust in him 00:20:47.879 --> 00:20:49.759 to enjoy riches 00:20:49.759 --> 00:20:51.480 in the kingdom of heaven 00:20:51.480 --> 00:20:52.919 life with you 00:20:52.919 --> 00:20:54.459 now and forever. 00:20:54.839 --> 00:20:55.459 Amen.