Every other Sunday night our church will be meeting for
prayer and fellowship. In those meetings
I will be doing an exposition of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which I believe to
be perhaps the most important explanation of the Christian life ever spoken.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3). Isn’t it interesting that Jesus begins the sermon with these
words? In preaching school they
teach you to begin with an introduction that will “grab” people. I often use movies or news stories – the
former because I’ve wasted so many hours of my life watching movies so I have
to use it somehow for the Kingdom, and the latter because we are in the
information age, and news stories are easy to tie in. But Jesus here begins with a dogmatic
statement – a blessing for those who
are inwardly destitute and broken. It
might not be an exciting sermon intro, but it is Jesus’, and it is richly counterintuitive.
The Scripture teaches the Kingdom of God (or of Heaven) to
mean the reign of God through His Son over all of His creation. As sin corrupted God's creation (which He
allowed), His reign must be sought. But
the prophet Daniel promised roughly 2600 years ago that a man would receive
from God a “kingdom” which “shall not be destroyed”, calling this man a “son of
man” who came (to earth) “with the clouds of heaven” (Dan. 7:13-14).
Jesus is here claiming to be the Son of Man from Daniel's prophecy, who comes from heaven with the keys to this
Kingdom. And since Daniel extended the “ownership” of
this Kingdom past Jesus to “the saints” (7:22), saying they will also “possess the
Kingdom” (7:18), it would appear Jesus is speaking very clearly to the audience
versed in the Scriptures: He is the Son
of Man who has come to take His Kingdom, which He will share with His people.
Yet He adds an imperative: in
order to have this blessing, one must be inwardly poor. Matthew doesn’t record Jesus elevating
outward poverty (though Luke does in his gospel), but Jesus elevating inward
poverty. That is to say that one must be
broken and ready for what Jesus brings – redemption, salvation, reconciliation
with a Holy God, and this is not something a person can do for themselves, so
they come to Jesus on their knees, asking Him to do it for them. Thus Jesus says later that He’s come to give
rest to those who are weary and heavy laden (Matt. 11:28).
This is the opposite of the way we would normally
think. Our motto today is, “Believe in
yourself.” But Jesus says that you must
believe in Him, and you only can believe in Him if you are inwardly
poor. Mark this: all we need is faith in
Jesus, but faith by necessity requires brokenness and inward poverty of spirit. No one truly believes unless they’ve been
broken by God’s Law and the weightiness of this life – the former meaning they
see they can’t keep God’s standard, and the latter meaning that with Solomon
they see that under the sun, “All is a striving after the wind.” Jesus comes to those who qualify and says, “You’re
blessed! The Kingdom is for you – and
I’ve come to give it to you. Follow me.”
God has always been looking for those with inward
brokenness. The sacrifices “of God” are
a broken heart and a contrite spirit (Psalm 51:17). Sacrifice means worship, and David here writes that true worship “of God” has a heart broken for Him and a sorry heart for sin and rebellion in
one’s self and the world. It is different than the
common prayer, “Break my heart for what breaks yours Lord." Rather the prayer is, “Break
my heart for you, because I’ll only
see you if I’m broken.”
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones – the Doctor, as he was called –
rightly commented about Jesus' prerequisite to enter the Kingdom: “The Gospel empties before it can fill.” That is to say, yes the Gospel will fill with
life those who believe. But it must
utterly empty a person of inward righteousness, pride, self-reliance, and
self-assurance before it can give
life to the believer. God wants this for
people – but people only get this if they see through the counterfeits to the
God whose truth they’ve suppressed and tried keeping down, for the sake of
independence, autonomy, and mirth.
This is why James tells a church with obvious inner issues,
“Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let
your laughter be turned to the mourning, and your joy to gloom” (James
4:9). It isn’t that God wants to be
Johnny Raincloud on all of our happiness.
It is simply that much of our happiness depends on glorying in things
that don’t last for eternity. So our joy
is counterfeit – fool’s gold. And it
won’t satisfy for long (which is you keep going back to it), and most
definitely not for eternity.
Jesus said that one’s treasure must be in heaven, and not on
earth (Matt. 6:19-21). The one with inward
poverty of spirit is the one who no longer treasures what’s on the earth, and
they need to know there is better out there somewhere. Jesus is saying that it is in what God is
building for His people in heaven. And
it is for us. But we must be over the
things of life enough that He can become our very life.
Go there. And get there by looking to Christ, reading His Word, asking Him
to shine His light in your heart (cf. Numbers 25-26, Psalm 119:135), and then
keep doing all of the above until you see His glory. You don’t need to be the life of the party –
that is overrated. And honestly, can you
keep making yourself the life of the
party? Or is it time to get serious
about truth? If so, take heart – the
Kingdom belongs to such as you. His promise is of eternal joy - you can become an heir of God's Kingdom (Rom 8:17, Gal. 4:7). But it is only for those who only want His treasure. And this inner yearning will manifest itself in poverty of spirit. Don't fight it - embrace it. And you will be embraced.
