THE BEATITUDES
BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 5:1-12
SEPTEMBER 9, 1990
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Those words, of course, come from the Declaration of Independence. The United States government guarantees you the right to pursue happiness. The United States government, however, does not tell you where to find happiness. The world has a few suggestions. The world suggests that we can find happiness through money, sex, power, materialism, hedonism, and ascensionism. But these things, at best, provide fleeting pleasures. At worst, they lead to total emptiness. The only true prescription for happiness is found in God’s word, and that prescription is called The Beatitudes.
The word Beatitude comes from the Latin, and it means to make happy. Each of the eight Beatitudes begins with the word blessed. The Greek word is makarios, which literally means happy. In the Beatitudes we have a prescription then for happiness. Today we are going to explore the first prescription, the first of the eight Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).
I have two teachings this morning. The first is this: The poor in spirit are those people who are able to say, “I need you.” The poor in spirit are those people who are able to say, “Help me.” In 1935, Alcoholics Anonymous was founded. In that same year, beer came out in cans for the first time. The Bible does not condemn drinking in moderation. The Bible does condemn any abuse of alcohol, and the Bible calls it sin. If you have any tendency to abuse alcohol, you should not drink any alcohol at all. But this is the problem. It is hard to stop if you tend to abuse alcohol. Alcohol is a very addictive drug. That is why Alcoholics Anonymous was formed in 1935. Alcoholics Anonymous discovered a very important truth: It is only as you become poor in spirit that you can begin to experience victory. When you are able to say to a group of other people, “I need you. I’m an alcoholic, and I need you. I’m an alcoholic. Help me.” When you are able to come to the Living God and say, “I need you. I’m an alcoholic, and I need you. I’m utterly powerless, without power, without you. Help me.” That is what it means to be poor in spirit.
I can tell you on the basis of the word of God that unless you become poor in spirit, unless you come to the Lord God Almighty and say, “I need you.” Unless you come to Jesus Christ and say, “Help me,” you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
The word poor in the Greek is the word pt?chos. This word refers to those who are destitute, in utter poverty. There are a lot of poor people in this world who are materially poor, particularly in developing countries on the African continent, the Asian continent, and the South American continent. There are 45 nations among the least developing countries where the average income per capita is less than $300 a year. In those 45 nations, disease and malnutrition are rampant. In those 45 nations, hundreds of millions of people go to bed hungry every night. In those 45 nations, hundreds of millions of people are going to go to bed hungry tonight. The World Hunger Conference convened in Rome by the United Nations concluded that many of these 45 nations have situations they have deemed hopeless.
But the church of Christ ministers in these 45 nations, seeking to bring hope physically, emotionally, and spiritually; and as the church of Christ seeks to minister in these countries, the church of Christ also ministers in the midst of poverty. There are many churches in these countries that do not have sanctuaries. They do not have buildings, certainly not sanctuaries like we are privileged to worship in this morning. Many of the churches that do have buildings and sanctuaries cannot afford chairs or pews. Many of them do not have hymn books. Many of them cannot even afford Bibles. They are poor. Many of the pastors who minister in these churches are poor. According to Overseas Crusade, many pastors in these countries make less than $10 a month. Some of them are paid only with rice and corn. They live in shacks made of bamboo and broken branches. For a bathroom, they have an outhouse if they are lucky; and yet, throughout these developing countries, Christianity is growing. In the midst of poverty, Christianity is thriving.
As we saw only two weeks ago, the power base of Christianity is actually shifting from the affluent nations to the poverty stricken nations. How can that be? Why is it that Christianity is thriving where people are poor, and Christianity is struggling where people are so rich. The Bible would indicate that there is a link between physical poverty and spiritual vitality. The reality is that sometimes it is easier for poor people to become poor in spirit. It is easier for them to feel destitute before God and utterly dependent upon God. And it is easier for them to come to the throne of God and say, “I need you.” It is easier for them to say, “Help me.” It is easier for them to say, “This world is not my home. I’m just passing through.” It is easier for them to say, “Come Lord Jesus. Come quickly.” It is easier for them to say, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.”
If you have read the Bible, you know that God has a special heart for poor people. He seems to have a special love for poor people. And it is not because He loves poverty. He hates poverty. All things being equal, God would just as soon the whole world were rich, but God loves the poor in spirit. God knows that so often poor people are more willing to be poor in spirit, to be destitute before the Lord, to be utterly dependent, to be in need.
We are an affluent nation. We are, of all people, the most blessed. America’s ghettos are gardens compared to the shantytowns in Calcutta, Lima, and Mexico City. We have so much. So much stuff. The problem is that it is harder for us to be destitute before God. It is easy for us to find security in our stuff than in the Lord. It is harder for us to be poor in spirit. Jesus said, “It’s harder for a rich man to get into heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle” (Matthew 19:24). He said that because He knows it is hard for rich people to be poor in spirit and utterly dependent on God.
This last month in the Denver community, we have had an economic tragedy. An investment fund called Hedged Investments, allegedly having as much as $100,000,000 invested—some say as much as $150,000,000—went under seemingly in a moment in time, right here in the city of Denver. This investment fund was headed up by a man who is an elder at Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church, one of our sister churches. He was an elder before that at Faith Presbyterian Church in Aurora, another one of our sister churches. Hundreds of people in the evangelical Christian community had invested in this fund. The minimal investment had to be $100,000. Some had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars and some more than $1,000,000. It was all gone overnight for reasons not yet fully understood. Perhaps more than 100 people at Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church, 100 families, were heavily invested in that fund. Perhaps 50 to 75 families in this church were invested in that fund. I have had 20 families call me this month from our church who lost everything saying, “Pray for us. We lost everything.” Many people at Faith Presbyterian Church in Aurora have been impacted. This is a major shock to the evangelical Christian community here in Denver.
It is really hard because a lot of dreams were shattered. Some people had put virtually everything in that fund. Dreams of early retirement and dreams of good retirement were shattered overnight. Dreams of sending kids to college now no longer seem possible. Dreams of buying a home in the mountains or some place to go where it is sunny in the winter are gone. It really is hard. Some people are angry. Some of you are angry. You are angry with God. You are angry with this elder at Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church. It is hard.
We might ask, “Why did God allow this? Why does God allow things like that to happen to Christians?” I do not know that we can answer that, but I know God promises to work for good with those who love Him (Romans 8:28). This is an opportunity for something wonderful.
We all lose things in this world. Sometimes the loss seems great, but it is an opportunity for something wonderful. It is an opportunity to learn what it means to be poor in spirit. It is an opportunity to come destitute before the throne of God and say, “I need you. I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour I need you.” It is an opportunity to trust God’s provision rather than the things we have laid up, and that can be pretty exciting to walk with that kind of trust day by day.
Certainly, it tells us that earthly treasures are not very secure. As our Lord Jesus said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19-20) It is a test of where your treasure is. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 19:21). It is not easy to say, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).
It’s not easy to say, “I brought nothing into this world ,and I’ll take nothing out of this world. But if I have food and clothing, with these I’ll be content.” That’s what it means to be poor in spirit. When you become poor in spirit, you see the power of God. In your nothingness, you begin to see His greatness. In your weakness, you begin to see His strength. Blessed are the poor in spirit. It is only as we come destitute before Him and say, “I need you,” that we begin to see the marvelous power and provision of God. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Secondly and finally, when we look at the poor in spirit, we should understand that these are people who are not only say, “I need you.” These are people who are able to say, “I’m sorry. I need you, and I’m sorry.” These are people who are able to repent.
The scrolls found at Qumran were part of the Dead Sea Scrolls that date back to the time of Christ and even earlier. In the War Scrolls the phrase “poor in spirit” was found. It is defined as referring to the repentant. There can be no doubt that the poor in spirit are repentant. They are able to come to the throne of God and not only say, “I need you,” but also come in repentance and say, “I’m sorry. I don’t want to be like this anymore. Forgive me.” I think it is safe to say that unless we are poor in spirit, unless we are repentant, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
Napoleon Bonaparte ruled much of the civilized world and found defeat at Waterloo. Napoleon spent the latter years of his life in exile at St. Helena. It is said that in these years a question was posed. He was asked, “What was the happiest day of your life? As you look back, what was the happiest day of your life? Was it the day you won the victory at Lodi? Was it the day you won the victory at Jena? Was it the day you won the victory at Austerlitz? Was it the day you were crowned emperor of the empire at Notre Dame Cathedral in 1804, December 2. Was it that day? Was it the day you married Josephine? Or was it the day you marched into Dresden in triumph? Was it the day you marched into Berlin in triumph, or the day you marched into Vienna in triumph? What was the happiest day of your life?” Napoleon Bonaparte is reported to have replied, “The day I took my first communion. That was the happiest day of my life.”
Who knows what Napoleon Bonaparte really believed. There were times when he said, “Jesus Christ is God.” He had many other times, though, when it seemed that he believed himself to be God.. If happiness, if blessedness means you are willing to say, “I’m sorry,” Napoleon Bonaparte was not a very happy man. He found it very difficult to say those words, “I’m sorry.” There is a lot of Napoleon Bonaparte in all of us. It is hard to say, “I’m sorry..”
The prodigal son squandered his inheritance. He lived a life of riotous sin and found himself in a pigsty. Finally, he humbled himself. He came, the Bible says, to his senses; and in that moment he became poor in spirit. He came back to his father and cried, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants” (Luke 15:18b-19) It was only then, when he was able to say, “I’m sorry,” that he found repentance. It is only when he became poor in spirit that he found happiness and found what it meant to be blessed. His father celebrated with a great feast and put a ring on his son’s finger and shoes on his son’s feet. He clothed his son with a robe of honor because of his repentance.
The thief on the cross. David after he had committed adultery. Saul after persecuting and murdering Christians. Mary Magdalene after years of promiscuity. All of them. They only found happiness when they reached the point where they were willing to say, “I’m sorry.” They came to God in repentance.
If ever a nation needed to repent, it is our nation today. If ever a nation needed to humble itself and become poor in spirit, it is our nation today. It is people of this nation.
During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address. It was a great address. He also gave another address during the Civil War, and you are not going to find it. Your children will not find it mentioned in the public school systems because in our secular society we often seek to de Christianize American history. But Abraham Lincoln gave another address during the Civil War, at least in my mind, was every bit as great as the Gettysburg Address. It was an address to the nation where he declared a national day of fasting. He called it a national day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer. He declared that this day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer would take place on Thursday, April 3, 1863. He gave this address to the nation, and I will read his words to you.
“It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the holy scriptures and proven by all history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. The awful calamity of Civil War, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity, too proud to pray to the God who made us. It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our national sins, to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”
I have to tell you. If our president were to give that speech to the nation today, the American Civil Liberties Union would be all over him. Yet, if ever our nation needed to repent, it is today. If ever we needed to humble ourselves, it is today. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). “If you will humble yourselves,” says the Lord, “and repent, I’ll heal your land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
Repentance is not simply a corporate obligation. It is our obligation individually. We need to repent. If we would be blessed, if we would find happiness, we need to become poor in spirit. I do not know most of you. I do not know what you are going through. You may have once felt close to the Lord, and maybe now you know you are not honoring Him. Maybe you feel the guilt of sin, and it is real guilt. Maybe you know you are walking astray. God wants you to know if you become poor in spirit, humble yourself, and repent, He will bless you.
How many of you have heard of a hymn called “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”? Some of you probably have. I am not going to sing it for you now, and you are probably glad to know that. If you grew up in churches, you probably heard this hymn. It is one of the great hymns of the faith. “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” written by Robert Robinson. When he wrote that hymn, he loved the Lord, and he experienced the blessing of the Lord. After writing the hymn, in the years that followed, he committed apostacy. He turned his back on Christ and began to go astray. He lived a life of blatant sin. He was riddled with guilt because the seed of Christ was within him. The Holy Spirit convicted him, but he could not repent.
He was traveling in Europe and met a woman there. He found her very attractive. He wanted to get to know her. She invited him to come to a gathering of Christians. He did not want to have anything to do with that anymore. He did, but he did not. Because he thought this woman was attractive and wanted to get to know her, he went. When he went to this gathering, the people were singing “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” the song he had written years before. He welled up with tears. The woman said to him, “What’s wrong?” He said, “I wrote that song years ago at a time when I felt so close to the Lord. I don’t think I could ever feel like that again. I’ve wandered far away.” She said, “The streams of mercy mentioned in the song still flow,” and he humbled himself. He became poor in spirit once again and said, “Lord, I’m sorry. I want to change. I want to live for you. Forgive me.” The blessings came. The joy came, and the happiness came.
God wants you to know that He wants to bless you if you would become poor in spirit and say, “I need you, and I’m sorry.” This is the message we have heard from the beginning. “God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1John 1:5b-9). Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God” (Matthew 5:3). Let us close with a word of prayer.