Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

Introduction: What is the "Therefore" There For?

"Therefore, in everything, treat others as you would have them to treat you." — Matthew 7:12

I didn't deal with the "therefore" last week. Whenever we see "therefore" in scripture, it is important — as somebody said — to find out what it is there for.

Just to demonstrate: the first word is "there." It's what my mother used to say when she said "stick a pin" — hold it there. So Jesus said "there," and then he said "for." The word "for" means before or in front of. So stop there and examine what is in front of what I am going to say.

Stop there and go back to chapter five of St. Matthew where I began this sermon. Examine all of that, and now I am about to give you a summation of chapter five and chapter six.

The Structure of Matthew 5–7

What it means is that you should always treat others as you would want them to treat you.

• Chapter 5 — Jesus talks about us and God: how we should relate to God, how God relates to us.
• Chapter 6 — He tells us how we should relate to God.
• Chapter 7 — He tells us how we should relate to one another.

It would be good in your own time to read those three chapters in that context and see how it works.

The Beatitudes: Instruction for Kingdom Life

I want to deal with verse three of chapter 5 today:

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

The Beatitudes are a set of verses that we come to understand well when we see them as the sermon on the New Testament mount and put them against the sermon on the Old Testament mount. We see Sinai standing against the mount that Jesus was standing on. We see the laws being given there, and Jesus giving the attitude that helps us to stay within the law. It's good to read those two together to get context.

The Beatitudes:

1. Convince us
2. Convict us
3. Comfort us

It's not something that is doable; it's something that you have to be. That's why it's called the Beatitudes. It is instruction for kingdom life.

Serving: Seeing Jesus in Others

As we talk about serve, it is not possible to serve unless you can see Jesus in others. If you can't see Christ in others, you will not serve in the right spirit.

• You will only treat me well if you can see Jesus in me.
• If you treat me well because I'm your bishop, it's not good enough.
• If you treat me well because I'm your friend, it's not good enough.
• If you treat me well because of what I've done for you, it is not good enough.
• But if you treat me well because I am created in the image of God, then you have done well.

Jesus said in Matthew 25 that he will one day say to you:

"I was hungry and you fed me. I was sick — you visited me. You visited me in prison. You clothed me when I was naked. It was me."

Not Serving for Recognition

A church that is looking to move forward in serving each other and serving our community must know that we are not serving for a good name.

We've never had a Dame in our congregation before. I believe it's the first one in New Testament Church of God. So if we're serving for damehood, we are going to be very disappointed. We have several MBEs and OBEs in our church all over the country, but the majority of us will never go through the gate of Buckingham Palace. We'll never get the recognition here.

But Jesus is going to say, "It was me." Never mind the recognition they give you for damehood — it was me. What you did, you did to the King.

Brethren, whenever I'm preparing a word, I'm never happy, because I'm saying to God, "So I present this word, I preach this word, and then what? Will it make a difference? Will we change? Will we move? Will it transform your people?" But brethren, one by one.

Today we see somebody recognized by an unjust king. Then what about the just King of Kings, who can't forget what you've done? Some of us are working out what my mother used to call the "soul case," and nobody sees. But the God who sits high and looks low will never overlook the very small thing that you do.

Damehood is one of the highest honors given to persons outside the royal family. It does not mean there is no damehood in heaven — because all of us are royalty. It's the best that we can do on earth. But the time is coming when we listen to a word like this and start to serve as though we are serving Jesus, and then we turn up and Jesus says, "It was me."

• "You mean — yes, it was me."
• "But you were smoking." — "It was me."
• "But you were drunk and staggering." — "It was me."

You cannot come between Jesus and his Father's image. If I am in the image of Jesus and you can see Christ in me, every time you give me a drink of water, Jesus just drank. And in heaven the record has been updated.

Someone is Keeping Record

The time comes when you come to church and sit and keep yourself quiet and worship. Every so often you get a burst of something and we see you move — but it's not like 10 or 20 years ago. But there's somebody keeping record.

"Whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord." — Colossians 3

"Be not weary in well-doing," — because God is faithful.

Therefore, everything that I've said before this — observe. Therefore, blessed are the poor in spirit.

Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

What a beautiful way to start a message. Wouldn't it be nice if the pastor came into the pulpit every Sunday and simply said, "Blessed"? How beautiful would that be? You set the scene; you know what is going to come afterwards.

Unpacking "Blessed" and "Poor"

The word "blessed" here means:

• Supremely blessed
• Fortunate
• Good fortune has come towards you
• You are well off

But these two don't really seem to go together — you are blessed, but at the same time, you are poor.

The word "poor" here is not your average poor. It's the word "bankrupt" in scripture. The word "destitute" — or more to the point, "beggarly papa" — comes from this very word.

Blessed are the poor in spirit — blessed are those whose self-significance does not absorb them — because the kingdom of heaven belongs to you.

It is ownership. You may be called a papa on earth, but Jesus is saying you own the kingdom of heaven.

Weaned From Ourselves

David said, "I feel like a child weaned from myself." It's about time some of us get weaned from ourselves. It's about time Christ sits on his royal throne in our lives.

Two Men at the Altar (Luke 18)

In St. Luke 18, this man went to the altar to pray, and he prayed the prayer we are supposed to pray:

"Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner."

The Bible said he left the temple justified. God heard; God responded.

Then the Pharisee came along and said:

"Lord, you already have my CV. My credentials precede me. I am so glad I am not like that publican over there. I attend church every Sunday. I give tithes and offering. I go to prayer meeting. Sunday school doesn't miss me. I get in my car and drive to church — he can't even bother to walk here. Every Sunday I'm on time. Lord, you know me."

I wonder how we turn up at church on Sunday. Do we arrive righteous, or do we come asking for forgiveness? Do we come saying, "Lord, I am a sinner before you"?

How Do We Achieve the Status of Poor in Spirit?

It's a constant gaze on Almighty God that leads you into the path of comparison. You look upon a holy God and you say, like Isaiah, "Woe is me, for I am undone."

Isaiah prophesied for six chapters successfully. People trembled in their boots when he preached. "But now that I see you, Lord, I realize — woe is me, for I am undone."

Undone. Taken apart. Dismantled. Undone is a very peculiar word, but it's instrumental. When you say, "I am undone," it means someone did this to me. Somebody stripped me down. "But I see that this is not — my God, is that your image? Is that what I'm supposed to look like? Help me."

I wonder if somebody's saying: "Lord, I am undone. I am not where I am supposed to be. I am not who I am supposed to be. Is that the image that I was created in? Lord, forgive me."

Brethren, your bishop prays the sinner's prayer every night, because I cannot go before a holy God and not recognize that I am so far from him. I cannot serve until I become less self-important.

The Beatitudes as a Scaling Ladder

I'm going to go through the Beatitudes one at a time. I want to demonstrate that it's a scaling ladder:

1. The poor in spirit
2. They that mourn
3. The meek

And it goes from one to the other. It's a step up each time you graduate to another level.

God is saying: you're poor in spirit, but all of heaven belongs to you. And when all of heaven belongs to you — you have no money in your pocket, never mind. You feel low in yourself, but you have riches in heaven. That's why you serve.

An Altar Call for Sinners

I wonder if anybody wants to come and pray with this sinner at the altar. Is there another sinner who wants to join me and say:

"God, I am low in spirit today. I am offering myself to you. I recognize that heaven belongs to me. I'm going to stop my mourning."

That's the precursor of the next time I preach — stop the mourning, because you will be comforted. "Paracleus" — it means close, it means call — two words: to be called near. Mourn, sister, because there is something you're not happy with. God is going to hear, and he's going to call you near. They shall be comforted.

Can I have one sinner with me? Whether the singer on the worship team, or the sinner that preaches sometimes, the sinner that is an usher — is there a sinner we can pray with together? How about one of the sinners that speaks in tongues here every Sunday? Could you come?

"Lord, have mercy upon me, because I am a sinner."

You're not ready to serve until you start to call yourself sinner. You have to step into the Samaritan shoe. Half-breed. Nobody counts you. You're not worth anything. It's only the blood of Jesus that has brought value to your life. But you are the same old Samaritan.

We Are in the Hospice

I left you last week hearing some people question when I told you that you are in the hospice. We are in the hospice. We're dying. We will never recover. This is destined to die.

Serving is about making each other comfortable whilst we wait. Making each other comfortable. "Here is a drink of water. You don't have to die thirsty. But I don't have good news — you're going to die."

Closing Prayer

As we serve, Lord Jesus, we know, dear Lord God, that we have to come into the unity of the faith. We know we have to understand what you're asking of us. We struggle with being low in spirit. We struggle with being poor in spirit, because we have to talk back and contend with some people. We cannot take it sitting down. So we struggle sometimes with the humility that is required.

But Father, if we could hide under the blood. If we could put on the Holy Ghost suit. If we could hear, Lord God, you closing off the Beatitudes:

"Rejoice and be exceedingly glad when men will persecute you and revile you and say all manner of evil against you, because you are in good company."

So persecuted was the prophet.

• You look up to Moses — it happened to him.
• You look up to Jeremiah — it happened to him.
• You look up to Isaiah — it happened to him.
• You look up to Jesus — they spat on him, they slapped him.

Poor in spirit. He went to the Father and said, "Father, I can't do this. If it be possible, let this cup pass from me."

Lord, I identify with those who often come to that place. We don't hear about it, we don't know about it. But God, every so often we come to the crossroad — some of us weekly, dear Lord Jesus — but somehow, Lord, we manage to say, "Not my will, Lord, but thy will be done."

Mighty God, as we talk about serve, we're learning to respond to insult differently. We are learning not to pay evil for evil. We are learning to do unto others as we would have them to do unto us.

Hear, God, the hearts of your people. We before you are like filthy rags. We submit to you, filthy rags — life that once existed but is now dead and must now pass as waste. Filthy rags.

So Father, we submit our lives to you. Let me be like a child weaned from myself. Separate me from my pride so I can serve. Help me not to see myself as better than anybody, but to see you in them, and to esteem them above myself.

Lord, I thank you for your word today. As we process this word — before we leave here today, help us to decide what we will do with this word. Like the day you died on the cross, a decision had to be made: What will you do with Jesus? What will you do with this word today? Let us serve. Praise be to the name of Jesus.

Assignment

Brethren, I would like for us to take as an assignment the study of St. Matthew 5 through 7. Do some research. I guarantee you, it is going to change our church.

The day we treat others like Jesus is resident in them, it will not just change our church but change our community. It's where we belong. It's where we are going.

I encourage you — let us do this study together. It will be worth it. God bless you.