Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit 虚心的人有福了
10 Jan 2020 | 3 min readsermon2020singapore | beatitudes
Matt 5:1-3
In the Old Testament, Moses had to ascend the mountain to receive the 10 commandments. The people trembled.
Years later in the New Testament, it was Jesus Himself who went up the mountain to speak of the commandments.
John 1:14, 17
“For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
Why should we be poor in spirit and how should we become poor in spirit?
Firstly, what is “poor in spirit”? The English and Chinese translations differ in Matthew but are similar in Luke.
Luke 6:20-21
“Blessed are you poor”
What does it mean to be poor, and being poor in spirit? Being poor doesn’t refer to a lack of food and wealth. In the Greek translation, poor has two different meanings. One is being hungry and wanting to eat; living a very difficult life. The Bible doesn’t refer to this definition. The Bible refers to the second: being poor in your soul. Jesus Christ will allow you to be filled with His grace. The poverty referred to here is one where you’re incapable of helping yourself; you need someone to help you; you’re totally empty.
To enter the Kingdom of God, one needs to keep the law of God. In the beatitudes, why did Jesus first mention “blessed are the poor in spirit”? Because if you feel you’re rich, you won’t feel in need for God.
If we realise we’re spiritually poor, we’ll feel it in our souls that we need God. We won’t be proud or self righteous. We will learn to seek God and draw near to Him in the process.
Do we feel this thirst and need in our soul right now? Do we rely on Jesus Christ to pursue further? If we have such pursuits, why do we sometimes sense we’re not growing spiritually, or feel the word of God? Why do we feel we have not changed after attending church for 10-20 years? It could be because we feel so abundant materialistically that we don’t feel spiritually poor.
Rev 3:17-18
While the believers in Laodecia were rich materialistically, God told them they were actually wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.
Today, do we have spiritual pursuits or are we spiritually poor?
2 Cor 8:9
Jesus Christ paid the price. He was originally rich but to save sinners like us He became poor. So what is the purpose of the great God Jesus Christ becoming poor? So that we may obtain salvation and gain spiritually through His death and poverty. His abundant sacrifice is so we can attain spiritual abundance.
We usually look at a person as our example; Jesus is the perfect example to look to.
When we become spiritually abundant, we should help someone else. And all the more seek for spiritually fulfilment.
We may neglect reviewing our own weaknesses but set our gaze on observing the weaknesses of others instead.
Luke 18:9-14
There is a certain weakness in men to reflect on other people and not ourselves. Jesus hence spoke this parable of the prayer of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Pharisees tended to look down on people. When they came to the temple to pray, there’s a stark difference. The Pharisee praised himself for all he did. He didn’t reflect on himself spiritually. He was just boasting about himself to God and sneering at the tax collector. On the other hand, the tax collector did not dare to lift his head before God or go near the temple, and best his chest (have you tried? It’s painful).
But at the end of the parable, the person who received grace was the humble tax collector and not the proud Pharisee.
The tax collector was honest with his faults. He knew he was spiritually broke. If a child admitted his wrong to you in tears and humility, would you still cane him?
If we can humble ourselves before God to recognise we’re spiritually poor, we will be blessed.
Be humble when we go before God. See what we’re lacking before God. Spend time looking at our own weaknesses and not that of others.
Luke 23:39-43
One of the criminals came to a realisation and asked Jesus to save him. At first, he mocked and sneered at Jesus Christ. But after observing all that had happened on the cross, he realised Jesus was a righteous man. And not just this criminal, amongst the crowd a centurion also beat his breast and proclaimed Jesus was a righteous man.
The criminal reflected on his own weaknesses. Looking upon Jesus, he felt the poverty in his soul. He reflected on his own wrong, and didn’t point out the wrong of the other criminal. Rather the process was his conscience pricked him to discern what’s right and wrong. Then he recognised that he had been condemned justly but Jesus had done no wrong. Then he scolded the other criminal.
While this criminal reflected on his own weakness, the other one didn’t. Not only did he not reflect on his wrongs, he still had it in him to mock Jesus.
The criminal who reflected asked Jesus to remember him when He comes into His kingdom. He said this despite Jesus having been deserted by His disciples, despite Jesus hanging on the cross. He still believed. He didn’t just have humility, he had faith. His faith was borne out of his humility.
There’re two types of people:
- A person who is humble, spends time to reflect internally, reflects on his sins.
- A person who is proud and looks at the faults of others instead of reflecting on his own.
Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
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