WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.759 Okay, for our text this evening we're returning to the Beatitudes from Matthew chapter 5, 00:00:09.759 --> 00:00:12.160 beginning of the Sermon and the Mount. 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:17.839 And Cori last Sunday evening did a kind of introductory message based on the Beatitudes 00:00:17.839 --> 00:00:21.199 and this evening I'm going to look at the first of them. 00:00:21.199 --> 00:00:23.760 We're going to go through them each individually. 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:26.920 So Matthew chapter 5, we're reading from the beginning again. 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:30.360 There's Bibles at the side if you want to take a Bible and look at it this evening. 00:00:30.360 --> 00:00:36.679 I'll not be moving too far from this passage, although I will be referring to one or two 00:00:36.679 --> 00:00:39.600 other messages this evening. 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:43.920 So seeing the crowds, he went up onto the mountain and when he sat down his disciples 00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:49.359 came to him and he opened his mouth and taught them saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:52.400 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 00:00:52.400 --> 00:00:56.120 So that is the first Beatitude. 00:00:56.119 --> 00:00:59.919 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 00:00:59.919 --> 00:01:06.000 And I guess kind of deliberately we have dovetailed a little bit with the morning series 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:12.239 on Proverbs and so there'll be some things that I will copy and plagiarise entirely from 00:01:12.239 --> 00:01:17.159 Cori from what he said this morning because it fits in and dovetails very well with this 00:01:17.159 --> 00:01:22.959 evening's theme as Cori was looking, if you weren't here this morning, pride and humility 00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:25.640 from Proverbs. 00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:33.040 But as you saw last week, the Sermon on the Mount really is the most comprehensive teaching 00:01:33.040 --> 00:01:38.040 that comes together, the most comprehensive teaching from Jesus about being a disciple 00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:41.239 of Jesus, of being a follower of Jesus. 00:01:41.239 --> 00:01:47.280 And I think it is critical to understand it and understand its uniqueness. 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:50.960 And there's at least four things I think it's helpful for us to remember both with the Beatitudes 00:01:50.960 --> 00:01:53.159 and with the whole of the Sermon on the Mount. 00:01:53.159 --> 00:01:57.479 The first thing is that it's not a set of guiding principles. 00:01:57.479 --> 00:02:01.399 You know, if I do my best, if I try my hardest to follow the Sermon on the Mount, the teaching 00:02:01.399 --> 00:02:04.439 of the Sermon on the Mount, God will accept me. 00:02:04.439 --> 00:02:11.039 So it's not really a set of guiding principles for life. 00:02:11.039 --> 00:02:17.960 But what it is, is a message that challenges our deepest instincts, particularly our deepest 00:02:17.960 --> 00:02:25.640 instincts for being self-reliant and claiming my own rights and saying, I've earned this 00:02:25.640 --> 00:02:26.640 before God. 00:02:26.640 --> 00:02:29.960 I'm entitled, as we saw this morning before God. 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:34.879 And I want just to be living my best life, however I feel that best life should be. 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:37.920 It challenges that deepest instinct. 00:02:37.920 --> 00:02:43.760 The third thing it does is that it exposes our spiritual poverty. 00:02:43.760 --> 00:02:46.840 When you read the Sermon on the Mount, you should come away from it because I certainly 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:50.920 come away from it, and I'm sure we all do, saying, this is impossible. 00:02:50.920 --> 00:02:52.680 I can't do this. 00:02:52.680 --> 00:02:54.200 I fall short. 00:02:54.200 --> 00:02:57.960 So it exposes our inability in many ways. 00:02:57.960 --> 00:03:00.879 It highlights our spiritual poverty. 00:03:00.879 --> 00:03:06.439 We can't live the way that we are encouraged to live here. 00:03:06.439 --> 00:03:13.319 But the fourth thing it does, hopefully, encouragingly is it reveals the riches of our life in Jesus 00:03:13.319 --> 00:03:14.800 Christ. 00:03:14.800 --> 00:03:21.000 It reveals how we can live as we put our trust and faith in Jesus Christ, because we've come 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:26.480 from Christ from death, we've come into life with Him, and this is how we are both called 00:03:26.480 --> 00:03:29.719 and empowered to live through Him. 00:03:29.719 --> 00:03:36.160 So it's maybe a challenge to us in the sense it exposes our own individual poverty before 00:03:36.160 --> 00:03:37.160 God. 00:03:37.160 --> 00:03:41.380 But it is also a great encouragement because with the Spirit of God, we can live the kind 00:03:41.380 --> 00:03:44.760 of life we're encouraged to do here. 00:03:44.759 --> 00:03:49.399 So the Beatitudes speak about our life in Jesus Christ. 00:03:49.399 --> 00:03:51.840 And in some ways, we probably... 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:53.439 Well, no, I shouldn't say this. 00:03:53.439 --> 00:03:55.079 We shouldn't take them individually. 00:03:55.079 --> 00:04:03.359 Of course we can take them individually, but we must remember that they are also a package. 00:04:03.359 --> 00:04:06.120 They come as one. 00:04:06.120 --> 00:04:10.879 It's not that we have eight different characteristics that a couple of Christians at the back of 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:14.120 the church there will have the first two, and then a couple down here will have another 00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:18.920 two, and they're spread out in the Christian church. 00:04:18.920 --> 00:04:24.040 Some have some of the characteristics, others don't have these same ones. 00:04:24.040 --> 00:04:28.840 These are eight characteristics that to a greater or lesser degree should be evident 00:04:28.840 --> 00:04:30.920 in every believer. 00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:36.840 So we should all reflect the characteristics of the Beatitudes in our Christian life. 00:04:36.839 --> 00:04:44.239 In many ways, it's a bit like the nine fruit of the Spirit that we have in Galatians. 00:04:44.239 --> 00:04:51.679 So that it's not individual fruits that one person's patient and another person's kind. 00:04:51.679 --> 00:04:55.839 It's that every Christian should bear all of these fruit in our lives to a greater or 00:04:55.839 --> 00:04:56.839 lesser degree. 00:04:56.839 --> 00:04:58.639 And the same is true of the Beatitudes. 00:04:58.639 --> 00:05:00.159 We should reflect them all. 00:05:00.159 --> 00:05:03.679 Now, I've been sitting over 32 years, I have to check back. 00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:07.800 I've never preached individually through the Beatitudes. 00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:13.879 I've preached a number of sermons on all of them, but I've never preached them individually, 00:05:13.879 --> 00:05:16.600 so it will be an instinct challenge to do so. 00:05:16.600 --> 00:05:21.960 But I think we want to remember at the outset that the Beatitudes are taken as one. 00:05:21.960 --> 00:05:27.960 Of course, we can look at them individually, but they are characteristics that should reflect 00:05:27.960 --> 00:05:30.560 every believer. 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:37.000 Because they reflect what it is that the Holy Spirit is working in our lives and in our 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:40.079 hearts that make us like Jesus. 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:45.120 So these eight Beatitudes are game changers for us. 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:51.540 We should be cultural radicals if we are living by the transformation that the Holy 00:05:51.540 --> 00:05:53.079 Spirit is working in our lives. 00:05:53.079 --> 00:05:56.199 We're revolutionaries, absolutely. 00:05:56.199 --> 00:05:59.959 We should be, and ought to be, non-conformists. 00:05:59.959 --> 00:06:05.680 We should be the most radical of people in society because of what Christ has done for 00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:06.680 us. 00:06:06.680 --> 00:06:07.680 We're mold breakers. 00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:11.680 That's what we are in Jesus Christ. 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:18.359 Every Christian has that privilege of being transformed, as we saw this morning, from 00:06:18.359 --> 00:06:22.759 the inside out by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:06:22.759 --> 00:06:29.439 And I think today more than any day, possibly, that should provoke questions from other people 00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:31.480 about our lives. 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:37.279 If we are living a beatitudinal life, if we are living a life that's reflecting the blessing 00:06:37.279 --> 00:06:44.079 of God in our lives because of grace that has touched our hearts, then we should be 00:06:44.079 --> 00:06:47.680 living in a way that provokes questions from others. 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:54.199 And that makes sharing our faith the easiest thing in the world, at one level. 00:06:54.199 --> 00:06:57.959 Because the interest is coming from outside ourselves. 00:06:57.959 --> 00:06:59.560 We're not having to push it. 00:06:59.560 --> 00:07:02.239 We're not having to wedge opportunities in. 00:07:02.239 --> 00:07:07.199 We're not having to force and kick the door down with people to speak about spiritual 00:07:07.199 --> 00:07:08.199 realities. 00:07:08.199 --> 00:07:13.519 But because this radical life that we have in Christ that is revealed to us here should 00:07:13.519 --> 00:07:16.120 provoke questions in other people. 00:07:16.120 --> 00:07:20.599 And of course then, how we answer is the great challenge. 00:07:20.599 --> 00:07:26.079 But the beatitudes then speak of a life of blessing. 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:31.159 As Corey mentioned in the introduction last week, Macarios, it's a great word which speaks 00:07:31.159 --> 00:07:38.719 very much about the blessings or the benefits that God confers on us through our faith in 00:07:38.719 --> 00:07:39.719 Jesus Christ. 00:07:39.719 --> 00:07:43.919 Now a lot of translations will have happy. 00:07:43.919 --> 00:07:47.199 Happy is the man, happy is the person, happy is... 00:07:47.199 --> 00:07:52.199 And that's a legitimate translation, but it's a... 00:07:52.199 --> 00:07:53.599 I think in English it just... 00:07:53.599 --> 00:07:55.360 It's a bit weak. 00:07:55.360 --> 00:07:57.759 It doesn't really capture... 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:00.439 Because I think maybe happy, the word happy has changed a little bit. 00:08:00.439 --> 00:08:05.800 For us, happy is very much a response that we have to our circumstances or to our relationship 00:08:05.800 --> 00:08:09.040 we might have that's good and the love that we're enjoying. 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:11.600 So we're happy because of that. 00:08:11.600 --> 00:08:18.080 What is blessing is what God confers on us because of grace that He gives us, the benefits 00:08:18.080 --> 00:08:19.600 of belonging to Him. 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:21.360 It's a little bit like... 00:08:21.360 --> 00:08:25.160 And some of the Americans who are with us today at lunch might have experienced it for the 00:08:25.160 --> 00:08:33.000 first time, so I don't think they have it so much in the States, is diluting juice. 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:39.560 Because they sometimes make the mistake of taking a whole glass of orange diluting juice 00:08:39.560 --> 00:08:41.120 and not diluting it. 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:47.399 I've been in that company of many who have done that and felt very ill and sick as a result. 00:08:47.399 --> 00:08:51.399 But you know, diluting juice takes just a little bit of concentrate and then lots of 00:08:51.399 --> 00:08:55.600 water and I think it's kind of like that. 00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:58.240 Happiness is like that diluted juice. 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:00.840 It's kind of much weaker. 00:09:00.840 --> 00:09:04.600 Whereas blessed is kind of like the concentrate. 00:09:04.600 --> 00:09:09.159 It's much more concentrated and much more... 00:09:09.159 --> 00:09:12.199 There's a greater depth to the word than happiness. 00:09:12.200 --> 00:09:20.040 So next time you have some Chiora, you'll remember that particular picture. 00:09:20.040 --> 00:09:21.720 It's something outside of ourselves. 00:09:21.720 --> 00:09:27.240 It's not simply an emotional response to good experiences that we might enjoy. 00:09:27.240 --> 00:09:32.960 It's the blessing of knowing God's grace received through faith. 00:09:32.960 --> 00:09:38.200 And we know that it has strong Old Testament connotations with that. 00:09:38.200 --> 00:09:39.200 That... 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:41.600 In other words, it's a relational word. 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:43.120 It's being in relationship with God. 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:48.639 You know, the great, erotic blessing that we sing here when our children are baptized 00:09:48.639 --> 00:09:51.080 or when our grown-ups are baptized. 00:09:51.080 --> 00:09:53.560 The Lord bless you and keep you. 00:09:53.560 --> 00:09:57.480 The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to the you. 00:09:57.480 --> 00:10:00.399 The Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace. 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:03.440 It's the opposite of the separation that sin brings, isn't it? 00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:08.960 It's the fact that His face is turned towards us and we see... 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:14.200 It's a great just illustration of what it means to belong to Christ is that God's face 00:10:14.200 --> 00:10:19.440 is turned towards us in blessing and in favor because of what Jesus has done. 00:10:19.440 --> 00:10:22.160 It's the brightness of His face. 00:10:22.160 --> 00:10:23.840 It's the grace, the peace. 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:26.280 It's the beatific vision, isn't it? 00:10:26.280 --> 00:10:31.639 It's seeing His beauty and the beauty of what it means to belong to Him. 00:10:31.639 --> 00:10:37.879 And the whole idea of the blessing here, the beatitude is that it comes from turning from 00:10:37.879 --> 00:10:45.039 sin and self-reliance and coming to Christ for salvation and true life and then knowing 00:10:45.039 --> 00:10:54.480 what it means to live with Christ as Lord, relational being key. 00:10:54.480 --> 00:11:00.519 And the blessing that's spoken of in these beatitudes has a present aspect. 00:11:00.519 --> 00:11:02.399 We're blessed now as believers. 00:11:02.399 --> 00:11:09.720 We're clearly blessed now belonging to Christ, but it also has a future dimension as we also 00:11:09.720 --> 00:11:13.240 saw when we were looking on Wednesday night at Habakkuk. 00:11:13.240 --> 00:11:14.240 Habakkuk. 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:22.600 There's this powerful recognition that what we have in Christ is now, but also promise 00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:24.519 and the beatitudes are full of that. 00:11:24.519 --> 00:11:27.079 You know, blessed are those who won't, they shall be comforted. 00:11:27.079 --> 00:11:29.720 Blessed are the meek, they will inherit the earth. 00:11:29.720 --> 00:11:36.200 So there's both a present and there's a future reality in the blessings of God. 00:11:36.200 --> 00:11:43.720 So this beatitude, blessed are the poor and spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. 00:11:43.720 --> 00:11:50.440 And I think Corrie mentioned this last week that the first beatitude here is really foundational. 00:11:50.440 --> 00:11:58.399 It's a foundational reminder from which all the other beatitudes flow and it speaks about 00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:00.559 receiving the kingdom of heaven. 00:12:00.559 --> 00:12:08.759 Discipleship, belonging to Jesus is founded on the recognition of our spiritual poverty 00:12:08.759 --> 00:12:11.039 before God. 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:13.360 Not a popular message. 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:18.319 Our need, our impotence before God. 00:12:18.319 --> 00:12:23.439 Take note of some of the things it doesn't say about the blessed person. 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:29.240 It doesn't say blessed are the confident, blessed are the self-assured, the popular, 00:12:29.240 --> 00:12:36.560 the successful, the theologically astute, the regular churchgoers, the morally upright. 00:12:36.560 --> 00:12:37.560 Doesn't say any of these things. 00:12:37.560 --> 00:12:42.240 There's a foundational beatitude that says blessed are the poor and spirit, for theirs 00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:43.960 is the kingdom of heaven. 00:12:43.960 --> 00:12:48.040 It's the divine turning upside down principle that we have. 00:12:48.040 --> 00:12:49.760 It's what God does. 00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:54.399 As He turns things upside down for us, we see it in different ways in Jesus' teaching 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:57.679 and the New Testament and the apostolic message. 00:12:57.679 --> 00:13:01.720 First Corinthians 1, 18, for the message of the cross, what is it? 00:13:01.720 --> 00:13:02.720 It's not wisdom. 00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:04.639 No, it's foolishness. 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:07.399 It's foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it's the 00:13:07.399 --> 00:13:12.240 power of God for it's written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of 00:13:12.240 --> 00:13:14.799 the intelligent, I will frustrate. 00:13:14.799 --> 00:13:21.279 It's this recognition that what the world regards as foolish, God in His wisdom reveals 00:13:21.279 --> 00:13:22.279 as the truth. 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:28.799 Or it's what Jesus says in Matthew 16, whoever wants to save their life will lose it. 00:13:28.799 --> 00:13:32.199 Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. 00:13:32.199 --> 00:13:37.599 It's the divine turning upside down principle that we recognize that His ways are not our 00:13:37.599 --> 00:13:39.099 ways. 00:13:39.100 --> 00:13:45.440 And in order to become rich in God's eyes, we need to become poor. 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:51.639 We need to recognize the place of spiritual poverty. 00:13:51.639 --> 00:13:54.040 Now the Bible speaks about poverty in different ways. 00:13:54.040 --> 00:14:00.759 Just very briefly mention some of the different ways that the Bible speaks about poverty. 00:14:00.759 --> 00:14:07.360 It talks about those who are poor because they're bone idle and lazy. 00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:09.919 You get that in Proverbs. 00:14:09.919 --> 00:14:14.279 People who have become poor because they will not do a stroke of work. 00:14:14.279 --> 00:14:16.279 They're just bone idle and lazy. 00:14:16.279 --> 00:14:20.120 And the Bible says that people who are like that need to repent. 00:14:20.120 --> 00:14:21.120 They need to change. 00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:29.560 They need to make sure that they change from being like that because that's sinful. 00:14:29.560 --> 00:14:35.560 Then it talks about the poor because of circumstances out with their control. 00:14:35.559 --> 00:14:47.119 Either born into poverty or they become poor because of a drought or other circumstances 00:14:47.119 --> 00:14:48.919 out with their control. 00:14:48.919 --> 00:14:55.119 And the Bible calls on everyone to help people in that position and those who have money 00:14:55.119 --> 00:14:59.959 to share it with those who don't have or goods or materials or food or whatever it might 00:14:59.959 --> 00:15:02.039 be. 00:15:02.039 --> 00:15:05.279 The third class of people that are called poor in the Bible are those who are poor because 00:15:05.279 --> 00:15:07.679 of injustice or oppression. 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:16.720 Those who are abused or those who are enslaved or those who are treated badly by those who 00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:21.240 reveal power over them. 00:15:21.240 --> 00:15:24.959 And the Bible calls us to deal with that injustice. 00:15:24.959 --> 00:15:33.000 It calls us to stand up against injustice and against oppression and to defend those 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:37.159 who are poverty stricken in that way and those who have no voice. 00:15:37.159 --> 00:15:40.879 Bible's very strong in that in terms of justice. 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:45.399 Now those who are poor because of circumstances out with their control or those who are poor 00:15:45.399 --> 00:15:50.519 because of injustice or oppression are not the kind of poverty that's being mentioned 00:15:50.519 --> 00:15:52.919 here in this beatitude. 00:15:52.919 --> 00:15:59.519 The Bible does speak a lot about other kinds of poverty, but here it's not speaking about 00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:05.919 those who are materially poor in that circumstance. 00:16:05.919 --> 00:16:11.679 In other words, God isn't saying here, Jesus isn't saying here that there's inherent virtue 00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:13.399 in being poor. 00:16:13.399 --> 00:16:17.559 It's not saying blessed are those who have no money because well, they're going to get 00:16:17.559 --> 00:16:20.159 the kingdom of heaven when they die. 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:21.159 It's not saying that. 00:16:21.159 --> 00:16:28.240 It's not speaking primarily about material or of poverty at that level. 00:16:28.240 --> 00:16:37.000 Although, although the good news of Jesus Christ does resonate in a special way for those 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:41.440 who have nothing in this life, and we mustn't forget that. 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:44.960 And it's Jesus who says it's harder for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven than a 00:16:44.960 --> 00:16:47.720 camel to go through the eye of a needle. 00:16:47.720 --> 00:16:53.960 And there is a sense in which those who are oppressed and poverty stricken have more ownership 00:16:53.960 --> 00:17:00.400 of the gospel potentially because of their situation. 00:17:00.400 --> 00:17:05.440 But this is primarily speaking about those who have come to recognize that before Christ, 00:17:05.440 --> 00:17:11.720 before God, for righteousness' sake, they have nothing to offer. 00:17:11.720 --> 00:17:12.840 They are poor in spirit. 00:17:12.840 --> 00:17:15.960 They have nothing to bring, in other words, to God. 00:17:15.960 --> 00:17:22.360 It's the great sin of the Laodicean church who Jesus wanted to vomit out of his mouth 00:17:22.359 --> 00:17:25.039 because they were neither hot nor cold. 00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:28.799 And He said, you say to them, He said, you say I'm rich. 00:17:28.799 --> 00:17:30.719 I've acquired wealth. 00:17:30.719 --> 00:17:33.159 I don't need a thing. 00:17:33.159 --> 00:17:38.359 But you don't realize that you're rich and pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 00:17:38.359 --> 00:17:44.359 And so He's exposing a poverty of spirit, or a lack of a poverty of spirit that the church 00:17:44.359 --> 00:17:46.879 in Laodicea have. 00:17:46.879 --> 00:17:51.240 And it's that poor in spirit that we read at the beginning in Psalm 70 in our Call to 00:17:51.240 --> 00:17:57.960 Worship, it's the psalmist often talks about himself as this poor man who cried, and it 00:17:57.960 --> 00:17:59.759 wasn't a material poverty. 00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:07.720 It was a poverty of value before the living God. 00:18:07.720 --> 00:18:14.200 And here what we have this poor in spirit clearly refers to a poverty, and this what 00:18:14.200 --> 00:18:20.480 it links so beautifully with this morning, a poverty of arrogance, a poverty of pride. 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:25.480 That before Christ we have a broken spirit. 00:18:25.480 --> 00:18:31.200 Our pride and our self-reliance and our shaking our fist heavenward and our standing before 00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:34.720 Him as if we are God has all gone. 00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:40.519 And that is to be the ongoing home turf of Christian character. 00:18:40.519 --> 00:18:47.000 That's to be the ongoing attitude of mind we have before God that we come to Him recognizing 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:54.880 in and of ourselves we have nothing to offer simply to His cross we cling. 00:18:54.880 --> 00:19:01.119 Now can I just make an awareness comment here because I think it's worth saying, and 00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:08.039 I think again, Cori maybe mentioned it this morning, being poor in spirit is not a qualifying 00:19:08.039 --> 00:19:11.440 virtue by which we earn God's favor. 00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:14.519 It's not like kind of false humility. 00:19:14.519 --> 00:19:18.799 Being poor in spirit isn't, it's not like we say, Cori was talking this morning about 00:19:18.799 --> 00:19:23.599 humility, you know, I'll try and be really humble and God will be pleased with that. 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:29.480 It's not that we say, okay, okay, right, I'll be really poor in spirit and then God will 00:19:29.480 --> 00:19:30.480 accept me. 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:33.639 Because that's just another works righteousness, isn't it? 00:19:33.639 --> 00:19:37.559 It's just another way that we're trying to earn favor before God. 00:19:37.559 --> 00:19:44.639 It's simply a mark of us having recognized we come with nothing and we offer nothing, 00:19:44.639 --> 00:19:49.720 but we receive everything by His grace and by His favor. 00:19:49.720 --> 00:19:57.759 So being poor in spirit is recognizing our spiritual poverty before God that we can't 00:19:57.759 --> 00:19:59.759 make ourselves right with God. 00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:02.559 We can't earn our way back into His favor. 00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:08.879 We are lost and dead indeed spiritually, but that He comes in His grace and touches us 00:20:08.879 --> 00:20:17.919 and redeems us as we cry out to Him with nothing and receiving everything. 00:20:17.919 --> 00:20:23.159 So briefly, what are the characteristics, other many characteristics of being poor in 00:20:23.159 --> 00:20:24.159 spirit? 00:20:24.159 --> 00:20:27.240 I'm just going to mention three very quickly. 00:20:27.240 --> 00:20:38.440 One is, and I mentioned this in our first prayer, it's recognizing how big God is. 00:20:38.440 --> 00:20:47.200 Poverty of spirit enables us to recognize God is big, we're small, in a right kind 00:20:47.200 --> 00:20:49.599 of way. 00:20:49.599 --> 00:20:54.359 Not that we're worthless, we're unworthy for sure. 00:20:54.359 --> 00:20:59.159 We're image bearers of the living God, we're precious at that level. 00:20:59.159 --> 00:21:01.959 But it's recognizing that He is the center. 00:21:01.959 --> 00:21:07.719 Have you ever thought how difficult, do you ever think, if you're kind of philosophically 00:21:07.719 --> 00:21:15.599 minded you might think like this sometimes, do you ever think of not being the center 00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:17.119 of your universe? 00:21:17.119 --> 00:21:19.799 It's really hard. 00:21:19.799 --> 00:21:23.039 It's really hard not to be the center of your universe. 00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:29.279 It's really hard not to think that everything revolves around you because we're self-conscious 00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:32.720 and we're at the center of our consciousness. 00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:40.759 But it's prayerfully seeking to recognize actually we'll be gone pretty soon. 00:21:40.759 --> 00:21:43.200 And God is at the center of the universe. 00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:45.480 God is the one who is sovereign. 00:21:45.480 --> 00:21:53.000 And recognizing His bigness in many different ways. 00:21:53.000 --> 00:21:57.319 I think the smaller we shrink God, the more self-reliant we become. 00:21:57.319 --> 00:21:58.319 Isn't that right? 00:21:58.319 --> 00:22:01.880 There's a kind of clear parallel there. 00:22:01.880 --> 00:22:04.960 If our God is small, then we don't cry out to Him. 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:07.480 We don't really need Him on a daily basis. 00:22:07.480 --> 00:22:11.400 We become prayerless and spiritually weak. 00:22:11.400 --> 00:22:17.200 So if you're never praying and if I'm never praying, it's because we can fit God in our 00:22:17.200 --> 00:22:18.200 pocket. 00:22:18.200 --> 00:22:20.240 He's very small. 00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:23.040 He's not infinite and He's not eternal. 00:22:23.040 --> 00:22:24.040 He's not unchangeable. 00:22:24.040 --> 00:22:26.080 He's a small God. 00:22:26.080 --> 00:22:28.759 And so we become self-reliant. 00:22:28.759 --> 00:22:37.240 I'll get on in my own without God, without recognizing His gifts and His power in our 00:22:37.240 --> 00:22:39.640 lives at a daily basis. 00:22:39.640 --> 00:22:44.680 So we go back to His Word and we find the revelation of Himself and His creative power 00:22:44.680 --> 00:22:52.080 and His glory and His purity and His riches and His judgment and the fact that we will 00:22:52.080 --> 00:22:55.600 stand before Him. 00:22:55.600 --> 00:23:00.840 And if we fall short as we do, if we always fall short of our own standards, which we 00:23:00.840 --> 00:23:07.920 often feel, how much more will we fall short of the standards of the judge of all the earth? 00:23:07.920 --> 00:23:12.600 Which is why we rely on His incredible salvation. 00:23:12.600 --> 00:23:19.400 We will never seek grace unless we see our need for grace. 00:23:19.400 --> 00:23:26.200 We'll never seek forgiveness if we don't think we're really that bad before God, because 00:23:26.200 --> 00:23:36.960 our whole life is comparative, just comparing ourselves with other people. 00:23:36.960 --> 00:23:40.840 The second thing is that we marvel at the cross. 00:23:40.840 --> 00:23:45.120 I think that's why God has given us it in the form of the sacrament as well, to remember 00:23:45.120 --> 00:23:46.480 again and again. 00:23:46.480 --> 00:23:49.960 His incarnation is remarkable. 00:23:49.960 --> 00:23:52.160 His life is astonishing. 00:23:52.160 --> 00:24:00.000 A life of anonymity in many ways, rejection and then violence and then death. 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:06.279 The cross itself, three hours of darkness. 00:24:06.279 --> 00:24:12.920 God forsaken of God, where Paul says, for you know that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ 00:24:12.920 --> 00:24:19.200 that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor so that you through His poverty 00:24:19.200 --> 00:24:20.200 might become rich. 00:24:20.200 --> 00:24:28.160 So there's this incredible swap that goes on, this incredible paradoxical reality of the 00:24:28.160 --> 00:24:36.119 eternally rich one becoming poor so that we can know the riches of His forgiveness 00:24:36.119 --> 00:24:38.879 as we recognize our need of Him. 00:24:38.879 --> 00:24:46.399 His love, His forgiveness, His eternal life, His face, His face shining on us like the 00:24:46.399 --> 00:24:52.599 great prodigal father running out with open arms to receive His child home. 00:24:52.599 --> 00:24:56.839 My sins nail to a cross. 00:24:56.839 --> 00:25:01.119 Brilliant, astonishing, wonderful truth. 00:25:01.119 --> 00:25:05.479 So recognizing how big God is, marveling at the cross, these are two of the characteristics 00:25:05.480 --> 00:25:07.120 I think of poverty of spirit. 00:25:07.120 --> 00:25:14.440 And the third is really a follow on from this morning is just humble dependence, a daily 00:25:14.440 --> 00:25:16.720 humble dependence on God. 00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:26.079 Every morning, I loved one hunter who led the Friday morning prayer time that we had 00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:29.960 on Zoom all through the first half of the year. 00:25:29.960 --> 00:25:36.559 We'd introduce everyone and welcome everyone and thank God for a new day and for the health 00:25:36.559 --> 00:25:39.680 and strength to be alive today in this beautiful day. 00:25:39.680 --> 00:25:41.720 I never get tired of hearing that. 00:25:41.720 --> 00:25:47.240 I never get tired of the recognition within that statement of humble dependence upon God 00:25:47.240 --> 00:25:49.039 as the life giver. 00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:55.200 Every new day is a blessing and a gift that He has given us. 00:25:55.200 --> 00:25:57.500 Time is short and time is precious. 00:25:57.500 --> 00:25:59.120 We don't have much time. 00:25:59.119 --> 00:26:05.039 We won't be here for very long and we're in a battle, a huge battle as the evil one thrashes 00:26:05.039 --> 00:26:14.719 out in his defeated mentality to do as much damage as he can. 00:26:14.719 --> 00:26:18.159 We must be facing God daily as believers. 00:26:18.159 --> 00:26:23.559 We must be those who recognize our ongoing need of Him out of His mercy and of His grace 00:26:23.559 --> 00:26:25.919 and of His strength. 00:26:25.920 --> 00:26:31.400 And if we lose sight of that, we descend again into self-reliance, don't we? 00:26:31.400 --> 00:26:37.960 So that the proud Christian is an ugly oxymoron. 00:26:37.960 --> 00:26:42.160 There shouldn't be such a thing in our lives as the proud Christian. 00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:48.080 Yes, we battle with pride, we struggle with pride, but we should never be content with 00:26:48.080 --> 00:26:53.120 or seek to characterize our lives as being proud. 00:26:53.119 --> 00:26:59.479 There are humble dependents, should be the mark of us all as we live our Christian lives. 00:26:59.479 --> 00:27:01.119 These are some of the characteristics. 00:27:01.119 --> 00:27:09.319 As we close, we remember that the great promise is for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 00:27:09.319 --> 00:27:13.119 And we oughtn't to forget that and we shouldn't forget that. 00:27:13.119 --> 00:27:17.279 There's a present reality there because we are blessed. 00:27:17.279 --> 00:27:19.799 Blessed are those who are proud. 00:27:19.799 --> 00:27:25.599 So we have the blessings, the benefits that God bestows on those who come to Him by faith. 00:27:25.599 --> 00:27:26.839 We become children of God. 00:27:26.839 --> 00:27:31.519 We become all of the things that He gifts us, including the Holy Spirit and the fruit of 00:27:31.519 --> 00:27:34.480 the Spirit and the changes that we can know in our lives. 00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:35.720 He dwells in us now. 00:27:35.720 --> 00:27:38.759 We are citizens and belonging to Him now. 00:27:38.759 --> 00:27:43.440 And the Father's good pleasure is to be with us and to be in us in the person of the Holy 00:27:43.440 --> 00:27:44.440 Spirit. 00:27:44.440 --> 00:27:49.359 And we have eternal life now so that even though we die yet we will live. 00:27:49.359 --> 00:27:55.119 Even if we don't make it to tomorrow, we have eternal life within us and we are right with 00:27:55.119 --> 00:28:00.559 God because of what Jesus has done, right before the judge of all the earth. 00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:01.559 Isn't that a great thing? 00:28:01.559 --> 00:28:08.119 If you were to go this evening as a Christian, you're right before the judge of all the earth. 00:28:08.119 --> 00:28:10.479 That's an amazing truth. 00:28:10.479 --> 00:28:12.559 But there's also that future hope. 00:28:12.559 --> 00:28:18.479 As many of these Beatitudes are framed in future terms, our hope lies in not only what 00:28:18.480 --> 00:28:24.279 we have now, but what we believe will be much better even in the future. 00:28:24.279 --> 00:28:29.759 And that's a great thing because one of the worst things I think in the reality of the 00:28:29.759 --> 00:28:35.200 world in which we live in is when people are drained of hope, when they have no more hope. 00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:37.920 And there are a lot of people that don't have any hope in this world. 00:28:37.920 --> 00:28:40.160 It's a terrible thing. 00:28:40.160 --> 00:28:45.480 And increasingly we're seeing despair and hopelessness because things are out of people's 00:28:45.480 --> 00:28:57.160 control politically, environmentally, socially, personally, out of control. 00:28:57.160 --> 00:28:58.660 Hopelessness, despair. 00:28:58.660 --> 00:29:06.200 We have the greatest hope of a future because we have it as a reality in the present. 00:29:06.200 --> 00:29:10.160 And the best, as I've often said from this pulpit, the best is still to come. 00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:15.960 So in Christ we have this home, a family, a God and a secure future so that even though 00:29:15.960 --> 00:29:19.560 we die yet shall we live as Jesus says in John 11. 00:29:19.560 --> 00:29:21.480 And that's a great hope. 00:29:21.480 --> 00:29:28.000 So I hope, I hope that we live that life. 00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:33.160 That we are poor in spirit, not to earn favour with God, but because we recognize who God 00:29:33.160 --> 00:29:35.720 is and we just fall at His knees. 00:29:35.720 --> 00:29:41.880 We fall on our knees at His feet because of what He has done for us. 00:29:41.880 --> 00:29:47.559 And we know His blessing and we know the possession of the kingdom with Him. 00:29:47.559 --> 00:29:48.559 Amen. 00:29:48.559 --> 00:29:49.559 Let's pray. 00:29:49.559 --> 00:29:54.640 Father God, help us to know and understand You better. 00:29:54.640 --> 00:29:57.039 Help us to focus on Your truth. 00:29:57.039 --> 00:30:05.000 It's very easy for us Lord to move our focus away from You, to our troubles, to our battles, 00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:10.559 to the weight of feeling that we are at the centre of our own universe and we need to 00:30:10.559 --> 00:30:15.160 do everything to make things good. 00:30:15.160 --> 00:30:21.279 But give us drainers of that self-reliance because it's such a heavy weight. 00:30:21.279 --> 00:30:25.039 It's such a crushing weight to carry. 00:30:25.039 --> 00:30:31.960 And let us just take off the burdens that we bear and lay them at Your feet and cry 00:30:31.960 --> 00:30:34.920 out to You about them. 00:30:34.920 --> 00:30:44.600 And put on the yoke of Christ which is light and which is easy and which we were created 00:30:44.600 --> 00:30:46.360 to wear. 00:30:46.360 --> 00:30:49.000 So help us to see things more clearly Lord, we pray. 00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:56.759 Forgive us when we're deceived or blinded or when we turn away from You like the prodigal 00:30:56.759 --> 00:31:06.160 Son and help us always to seek the open arms of the Father who longs for us to have that 00:31:06.160 --> 00:31:11.879 poverty of spirit which is true riches indeed, real riches. 00:31:11.879 --> 00:31:13.079 So remind us of that. 00:31:13.079 --> 00:31:20.599 Keep us from chasing other kinds of riches as if happiness will depend on them. 00:31:20.599 --> 00:31:26.799 And we pray to rely on You daily, especially in prayer. 00:31:26.799 --> 00:31:33.480 Make us Lord we pray, a praying people because that is everything. 00:31:33.480 --> 00:31:52.160 In Jesus' name, amen.