SERMON ON THE MOUNT
MATTHEW 5:3
FIRST THINGS FIRST
#2 - SERMON ON THE
MOUNT
There are things
that must be done first before other things can be done. There are basics that must be done first
before more elaborate things can be accomplished.
The best pianists
had to first learn the notes and then the scales.
The fastest typist
had to first learn the keyboard.
The very artistic
skaters didn't start with fancy routines. She first had to learn how to skate.
There is an
expression that goes "first things first".
We begin with the
first verse of the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus begins by putting "first things first".
He says in Matthew
5:3 - Blessed are the poor in spirit: for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
This is the verse
upon which the whole Sermon on the Mount builds. This is the first step to becoming a
Christian. This is the first step in
living the Christian Life.
In our text, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven, Jesus is telling us that the secret to living
righteously and to be being truly "happy is by being poor in spirit".
As you can well
guess, being poor in spirit does not mean to be poor spirited. Jesus isn't encouraging a bad attitude.
And Jesus isn't
talking about physical poverty.
Our spirit would
be our attitude.
The word
translated for poor here is the word used for someone who is so poor he has to
beg. I have known poor people who didn't
have much, but were able to survive. The person described here by Jesus is so
poor that he has to continually ask for help.
D. A. Carson said
'Poverty of Spirit then, is the personal acknowledgement of spiritual
bankruptcy.' D. A. Carson, The Sermon on
the Mount (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1978) p. 16 quoted by R. Kent
Hughes, The Sermon on the Mount - The
Message of the Kingdom (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2001) p. 19
You realize that
you have no righteousness good enough for God.
You realize that you do not have the resources to live righteously
within yourself. Your only hope is to
cry out to God for help. This, my
friend, is true humility.
The spiritual
beggar:
Knows that he is
nothing
Knows that he has
nothing
Knows that he has to
ask God for everything
There are at least
three areas that are affected by being poor in spirit.
SALVATION
Who did Jesus come
to save?
He didn't come to
save righteous people.
He came to save
unrighteous people and to make them righteous. Luke 5:32
He came to save
those who were lost in the degradation of sin. Luke 19:10
If Jesus came to
save sinners, you must admit that you are a sinner to be saved.
If Jesus came to
save the lost, you must admit that you are lost.
To truly be saved
you must begin by admitting that you are a poor lost, sinner! You have to be poor in spirit realizing that
you have no hope of forgiveness in yourself.
As a poor lost
sinner, you turn to the Savior, the Lord Jesus, the
perfect Son of God, who died for your sins. 2 Corinthians 5:21
You turn to the
Savior and place your faith and trust in Him for eternal life. John 3:36
John
Jesus told a story
about two men in Luke 18:10-14, One showed his pride. The other showed his
humility. The one who humbled himself
before God was the one who was righteous.
It is the person
who humbles himself towards God and turns to Christ by faith, poor in spirit,
broken, knowing he deserves nothing, that is saved.
SALVATION
SUBMISSION
A Christian who is
poor in spirit is submissive to God.
He realizes that
he has done nothing to save himself.
He realizes that he
can do nothing in his own power.
He realizes that
apart from Christ he is nothing.
What causes us to
fail to be submissive?
What causes us to
not be poor in spirit?
It is our pride.
·
It is our pride that makes us think that we
are so important
that we worry
about what others think of us.
·
It is our pride that often causes our feelings
to be hurt
because we think
that we should have things our way.
·
It is our pride that makes us worry about
ourselves and our
own wellbeing. We
look out for #1!
·
It is our pride that causes us to make
financial decisions that
make us feel good.
·
It is our pride that causes us to play with
"toys" and to
Entertain ourselves instead of pleasing
God.
·
It is our pride that causes us to be critical of
others.
·
It is our pride that makes us refuse to change
what we know
that we should
change.
How do we become
"poor in Spirit"?
1.
Compare yourself to Jesus and
nobody else.
When we compare ourselves
favorably to others we usually end up feeling pretty good.
When we compare
ourselves with the Lord Jesus we will come away humble.
James 4:10 - Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord,
and he shall lift you up.
2.
Surrender your
"rights" to God.
When you have no
"rights" there's no reason to get upset with anything. Romans 12:1
3.
Live to please God.
Warren Wiersbe - "The person who is poor in
spirit is not disturbed by the attitudes or criticisms of others, because he
lives to please God." Warren Wiersbe, Live
Like a King (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Press, 1976), p. 37
Deuteronomy 10:20
4.
Look continually to God and not
to yourself to fulfill every need. Be a humble beggar before God!
Realize that unless He provides it, your not getting it. Psalm 123:2, Matthew 7:7-8
Psalm 123:2 - Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto
the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her
mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon
us.
SERVICE
The person who is
truly poor in spirit is available to God, even though he realizes that he in
himself is nothing.
John MacArthur
mentioned some men who were greatly used of God, and yet were poor in spirit.
Consider the
prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 6:1-8
Listen to the
words of the great King David. 2 Samuel 7:18
And remember what
Peter said when Jesus gave him a miraculous catch of fish? Luke 5:8
Luke
You know it's
really easy to make excuses not to be used of God.
And most of the
excuses we make can be traced back to our pride.
The great men of
the Bible who were used by God were men who recognized their inability, but
then allowed God to work through them.
Are you willing to
do the same?
Are you ready to
be used by God?
Put first things
first and become poor in Spirit!