Poor in Spirit: What Jesus Actually Meant

What is the good life?

I think everyone has a definition of the good life.

If I gave you enough time, we could all fill in the blank in the sentence.

Blessed is the one who.

What would you put in the blank?

Blessed is the one who has financial security.

Blessed is the one who has well-behaving children, okay?

Blessed is the one who's who's working the dream job.

Blessed is the one who's got the cabin up north in the summer or the second home in Florida for the winter?

What is the blessed life?

Blessed is the one who has who has heated seats in Michigan, right?

In the car?

Blessed is that guy that's six foot two, okay?

We all get it.

We're all jealous of you.

Have you seen the volume on her hair?

She is blessed.

What would need to go in, what would need to be present in your life for you to say that is the good life?

For me personally, I would say blessed is the one who starts every morning with a bougie pour over coffee.

You know, single origin, of course.

East African roast, very forward, if you know, you know.

Okay, or or this morning, this morning, uh the volunteers here got some, if you, if you know, again, you know, you know, Hazen's blueberry chocolate chip cookies.

I had one of those.

Blessed is the one who knows how good a Hazen's blueberry chocolate chip cookie is.

Everyone's got a definition of the good life.

What is yours?

Um in in in throughout the throughout this preaching series, we're we're gonna be unpacking kind of what is what did Jesus say the good life is?

And the question that we're gonna be answering, we're gonna be really, really diving deep into is is does Jesus' definition of the good life agree with yours?

And to do this, we're gonna be we're gonna be examining these set of statements that you just heard from the book of Matthew, chapter five, a set of statements that have become known as the beatitudes, which if you grew up in church, you you've heard probably the word beatitude before, and you've probably heard it only in reference to this set of statements from Jesus.

And if you didn't grow up in church, you're probably like, what in the world is a beatitude?

Well, here's what a beatitude is.

Beatitude is a it's a state of being.

Specifically, it is a state of utmost bliss.

Uh maybe you could say like exalted happiness.

Whenever we say, how fortunate is that person, or how or how flourishing is that person, or how blessed is the one who we are, whatever we fill that blanket with, we're describing what we see as a beatitude.

Beatitudes are descriptions of the good life.

And in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus gives us the kingdom of heaven's perspective on the good life.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

My hope throughout this series, the next few weeks, is that we will all listen to what Jesus says about the good life, and that we will evaluate how we define it and perhaps even adjust our definition of what the good life is.

If you want to follow along in your Bible, Matthew chapter 5, when we open Matthew chapter 5, Jesus has just begun his public ministry.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention Matthew 5 · chapter mention

He's been going around the region, uh, the towns and villages in northern Israel, and he's been preaching a message that gets boiled down to this repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.

And I mean, Jesus, he's just, he's he's so intriguing.

The way he talks, the way he interacts with people, there's something different about him.

It said that he spoke with a different kind of authority than the other religious leaders.

And so people are just attracted to him like a magnet.

Crowds start to gather.

Everyone said, You gotta hear this guy.

This guy's so great.

And so Matthew chapter 5 opens, it says that he just goes, he sees the crowds, he goes up on a mountainside, and he sits down, and all his followers gather around, and he begins to describe for them what he's talking about when he says the kingdom of heaven has come near.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Okay, so let's get into this.

We're gonna see right from sentence one.

He his perspective, the kingdom perspective on the good life is it's not what we expect.

Here, here's how he begins the Sermon on the Mount.

He said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And if you want a challenge over the next few weeks, I'm gonna the challenge is to commit these beatitudes to memory.

Matthew 5, 3 through 10, the challenge is to memorize those.

And kids, teenagers, I bet you can do it faster than your parents.

Okay, but here's here, I mean, this is this is the kingdom of heaven perspective on the good life.

Today, we're gonna we're gonna focus on that first line.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Now, I'm pretty confident that earlier, when I put the sentence up there, blessed is the one who, blank, I'm pretty confident nobody filled in that blank with the one who is poor in spirit.

Like poor in spirit isn't on anyone's list of the good life except Jesus, and it's number one on his list.

And so I think it's worth going on a journey to discover, okay, well, why, why would Jesus say, blessed are the poor in spirit?

So on this journey, we're gonna have to unpack, okay, what do what do we mean when we say poor in spirit?

What does it mean that theirs is the kingdom of heaven, and why is that a blessing?

So we're gonna start with what does it mean to be poor in spirit?

Okay, I think we all understand those words in isolation.

All right, we we understand poor means to to have a lack of something or to have nothing.

I think also importantly, it's it means to be aware that you don't have anything, that you have a lack, and you feel powerless to change that situation.

Okay, so that's poor.

And then we've got spirit, which can mean lots of things.

It can mean like a ghost, it could mean like uh like breath or wind.

But here, this word spirit is really referring to, okay, stick with me, this sort of invisible energy that animates a body.

Okay, we all kind of understand that we would we would call that our our spirit.

So, so here we're talking about, which might sound weird to put it this way, but poor in spirit, we're talking about someone who has a conscious awareness of their lack of this kind of invisible life energy.

Jesus is talking about people who are empty of life, they lack a certain kind of vitality.

Now, he's not particularly saying that these people are poor materialistically or financially.

They could be.

I mean, people who are poor in spirit do tend to be poor in other ways as well.

But specifically, he's talking about people who are empty of this sort of energy of life.

And he says, these people are blessed.

These are the blessed ones.

The blessed are the poor in spirit.

Or we could say, the good life belongs to those who lack this sort of energy for life and they know it and they feel like they can't do anything about it.

Now, I read this and I'm like, really?

Okay, are those really the blessed ones?

Or is this Jesus doing some sort of like mind trick with us?

Like he's setting us up to like, like, look, what are we doing here?

Now, it importantly, Jesus, it's under it's important to understand his audience.

So when these people that were gathering around that were so attracted to his teaching, they tended to be full, these crowds tended to be full of fishermen, farmers, traders, merchants, there were there were beggars there, there were sex workers there.

These are people that would have seen themselves as poor in spirit.

And Jesus has said, okay, the kingdom of heaven is happening through me.

And then he turns to this group of people and he says, and it's happening through you too.

You just don't see it yet.

So, in some ways, we could be like, this is so brilliant of Jesus.

He's got this ragtag group of people, and he's and he's telling them, Okay, I want to reshape your view on your own situation.

He's like, Let me give you the lens of the kingdom of heaven.

From the kingdom of heaven's perspective, you are the blessed ones.

I mean, again, this this is this this is a brilliant uh kind of reversal of understanding that Jesus is giving them.

And if we are gonna understand what it means that blessed are the poor in spirit, we're gonna have to put that same lens on ourselves.

And we're gonna have to begin to see our lives and the world around us from this perspective that Jesus is teaching.

Now, luckily for us, we have more than just this one statement.

This wasn't uh some sort of pithy statement for Jesus where he makes this comment one time and then we don't get anything else.

The rest of his ministry reinforced this idea of the blessedness of the poor in spirit.

For instance, much later, he Jesus told this parable.

It goes like this: two men went up to the temple to pray.

One a Pharisee, which is a religious leader, and the other a tax collector, which in this culture would have been like the opposite of a religious leader.

This is a special kind of sinner.

Well, the Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, God, I thank you.

I'm not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector over here.

I fast twice a week and I give a tenth of all I get.

But the tax collector stood at a distance.

He would not even look up to heaven, but he beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

I tell you that this man, the tax collector, rather than the other, went home justified before God.

For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Which one of these two men came to the temple that day poor in spirit?

Jesus is presenting this idea that there's like there's there's two ways we can view our situation in the world.

We can view it as full or empty.

And those who see themselves in the empty, powerless sort of state, they are the privileged ones.

They are the blessed ones because they are capable of receiving what's coming to them.

Okay, maybe we'll help to think of it like this.

Okay, got two cups here.

One is full, one is empty.

Which one can receive something?

Okay, obvious.

Now, if we think of God as the source of life, this is the abundant life, this is what God pours out.

He created life, he gives life.

God is constantly pouring out for all.

One of these lives is able to receive what God is pouring out, and the other is already full.

This is not to say that someone who has a full life according to the standards of this world, or even a self-sufficiently full life, cannot receive the kingdom of heaven.

It just means they have to be poured out first to even have room for it.

Those who are poor in spirit, they come empty.

Do you see why Jesus is saying this is a blessing?

Like the empty have no struggle.

The poorer you are in spirit, the easier it is to receive what's coming to you.

The easier it is to pour out your life or even be willing to.

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

The good life belongs to those who are or choose to become poor in spirit.

For they are the ones who are even able to receive the kingdom of heaven that is coming to them.

This is what Jesus is saying.

And then he goes on, perhaps all day and into the evening, explaining what the kingdom of heaven is like.

Explaining the sort of life that he's promising to pour out for those who come to him empty.

This is the Sermon on the Mount.

If you want to read Matthew 5, 6, and 7 this week.

I mean, this is what he's doing here.

He's explaining to Kim the perspective on prayer, fasting, giving.

It's in the Sermon on the Mount where he tells his followers that they have to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them.

He tells them to turn the other cheek.

He looks at him, he says, You, you are the light of the world.

In the Sermon on the Mount, he gives the perspective on the kingdom perspective on marriage and divorce and lust and murder.

He says that he urges his followers to choose the narrow road that leads to life.

If you've ever heard of the golden rule, treat others the way you want to be treated.

That's in the Sermon on the Mount.

I mean, this is only scratching the surface.

Jesus is saying, if you will come to me empty of spirit, then I will pour my spirit into you, and the life that I pour into you will be a life that is aligned with the way of the kingdom of heaven.

This is why blessed are the poor in spirit.

And the good news of this, this promise, is you don't have to wait for it.

You can have this right now.

Importantly, the scripture says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Not you'll get it later or after you die, you'll get to experience what it's like.

Like you get this now.

And if you look at the other six beatitudes that come right after this, it's all stuff that you will be.

Blessed are those who mourn, they will be comforted.

Blessed are the merciful, they will be shown mercy.

But this one, the first one, the kingdom of heaven.

It's available to us now.

It's available to any who are willing to come to Jesus, poor in spirit.

Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

This poor in spirit posture, this poor in spirit state, it is it is the gateway to salvation, it's the gateway to the kingdom of heaven.

Because to receive heaven, you have to receive the grace of God.

And in order to receive the grace of God, the only prerequisite is that you acknowledge you need it.

And heads up, we all need it.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Every one of us at some point has looked at the way of the world and we've desired a good life that does not align with the kingdom of heaven.

And we've gone after it, some of us more successfully than others.

And whether you, whether your version of the good life involves comfort or success or morality or control or whatever it is, none of them, none of those things, even if you filled up your life with it, none of them will earn you heaven.

Like there is for for those who say, okay, I just want to do good enough or be good enough or get enough so that somehow I can be enough to get into heaven.

Jesus says, no one comes to the Father except through me.

None of us can be good enough or do good enough to get into heaven.

You and I only get the kingdom of heaven because Jesus is enough.

That's the gospel.

The good news is that Jesus lived the life that we could not in perfect alignment with the righteousness of heaven.

And then he died the death that our sin deserved.

And then he rose from the dead so that we could be offered forgiveness.

We could be offered new life.

We could be offered, get this, citizenship in God's kingdom.

That's the gift.

This is why the Apostle Paul later writes, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

Jesus emptied himself of his life, so that empty people could be filled with his life.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who come to Jesus with the only thing they have to offer is their need for his grace.

That's the first beatitude.

What are you gonna do with that?

Like, how do we respond to this teaching from Jesus?

What's your next step with God?

I'm gonna offer everyone to start here.

Come to Jesus empty.

Come to Jesus empty.

For some of you, you you showed up today and you're like, yep, I'm poor in spirit.

Blessed are you.

For those of you who are rich in spirit or full in spirit, if you want to receive the kingdom of heaven that is coming for you, that God is pouring out for you, you will have to empty yourself.

To lay your life down, or as Jesus put it later, he said, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

And then, like the tax collector in the parable, the next step is that you ask God for mercy.

He said, He said, God have mercy on me, a sinner.

And then the third step is to receive that mercy.

Receive the forgiveness that He is promised to you.

Nobody earns their way into the kingdom of heaven.

It is given as a gift, specifically to those who are poor in spirit.

That's the first step, okay?

So come to Jesus empty, and here's the next step.

All right, you ready for this?

Keep coming to Jesus empty.

Being poor in spirit is not a one-time sort of transaction thing.

It's not just the way we begin a relationship with God, it's how we keep that relationship going.

Because here's what happens, and and you, and maybe you've experienced this.

I know I have personally.

We'll we'll pour ourselves out, empty our life before God, and then as soon as if we're not paying attention, we just start to fill it back up with all the things of this world.

The blessedness of the poor in spirit is that is that this is the posture of their life.

It's not a one-time thing, it's it's their way of being in the world.

It's wake up every morning, I need you, Jesus, today, just as much as the day you saved me.

That's the posture of the poor in spirit.

I said at the top, I asked you to fill in the sentence: blessed is the one who.

From the kingdom of heaven's perspective, the poor in spirit are the blessed ones.

They're the fortunate sons and daughters because God has a surprise coming for them.

And not just for them.

In the coming weeks, we're gonna see that God's got a surprise for those who mourn, for the meek, for the persecuted, for those who hunger for righteousness, for the merciful, for the pure in heart, for the peacemakers.

The good life belongs to them too.

With each one of these beatitudes, Jesus is unpacking at a deeper and deeper level this idea that the good life begins when we let go of the things of this world so that our hands are open to take hold of the things that God is pouring out, namely his grace.

So my prayer for all of us today is that we will come to Jesus open-handed, empty of spirit, and that we will be filled with his grace.

Let's pray.

God, you are so good.

You are the author of life.

You are the giver of life.

And I'm so grateful for your generosity in pouring out.

God, for each one of us that's here today, may we be filled.

Maybe we sit under your grace and just let it overwhelm us and fill us and overflow in our lives.

And if there's areas of our life that we've failed to surrender to you or neglected surrendering to you, God, may may your Holy Spirit just work out those areas of our life.

Give us the courage.

Give us the the patience, be patient with us.

Give us whatever we need to pour that out.

God, so we can make more room for your grace to fall on us.

And God, as we go from here, and with every attempt we make, with every day that we wake up, saying, God, I need you today.

May you be honored and glorified in our lives.

Amen.

Alright, what's your next step with God?

If you're new to us, this is how we we wrap up every message around here.

We pause, we ask God, okay, God, what are you calling me to do in light of what you just taught us through Scripture?

So what are you gonna do with it?

For some of you, perhaps your next step is to make a decision, to trust Jesus.

The first time you say, I'm gonna surrender to you, God.

And if that's you, we would love to help you take a step of baptism.

Baptism is one way that we that we come to God poor in spirit and say, God, I need you to fill my life.

I'm gonna empty myself.

This we go in the water, someone goes down saying, I'm dying to my old way of living.

That's not the good life.

And then we raise to say, I'm trusting, I'm trusting the way of Jesus to be the life that fills me.

Perhaps that's the step you're ready to take today.

If it is, if you'll talk to someone on our prayer team, they're around the room with the illuminated lanyards, talk to someone in the next steps area, we'd love to help you take the step of baptism.

Maybe your next step is to is to pray.

Maybe that's where you're at.

Maybe it's with one of our prayer team volunteers.

I mean, prayer is one way we say, God, I need you.

Man, when we come to God through prayer, poor, and spirit, man, he just longs to pour himself out for us.

Maybe, maybe today uh communion is a step you want to take.

We we offer communion every week.

We got tables around the room that have the communion elements.

We offer this to believers every weekend.

It's a reminder that first Jesus emptied his life, he who is rich became poor, so that we through him might become rich.

That scripture, that's what communion's all about.

It's this reminder that his body was torn, his blood was poured out.

That's why we take the bread and the juice.

And believers, we we come to this table every week, time again and again and again and again, to say, we come empty handed to say, I need you, God.

So if you'd like to take that, you can do that during this time.

But pause for a moment and say, God, God, what's the step you're calling me to take?

And then wherever He leads you, that's where you should go.