Beatitudes I

well good morning to our online and toour congregational uh audience thismorning as today we're going to startwalking through the Beatitudes andfollowing Jesus Through the BeatitudesI'd like to thank Pastor Bryce for awarm and gracious welcome it's myprivilege to be able to share with youtoday what it means to walk with JesusThrough the Beatitudes uh when I wasstudying in seminary I was oftenintrigued by the prophecies of Danieland the Prophecies of Revelation but Icame to realize that the bits of theBible that we tend to think of as beingsimple to understand that we tend toskip over in our readings such as theBeatitudes are actually pregnant withvery deep spiritual significance and soit's my privilege to walk with all of ushere today as we go through this weekthrough these incredibly powerfulteachings of our Lord and Savior JesusChrist we're going to be focusing onMatthew's uh version of the Beatitudesthere are two versions of thebeattitudes uh one in Luke chapter 6 andthe other in Matthew Chapter 5 but we'regoing to be focusing during this week onthe on Matthew's version of theBeatitudes and this morning we're goingto have a brief overview to theBeatitudes themselves uh then we'regoing to focus on the first of theBeatitudes uh blessed are the poor inspirit for theirs is the kingdom ofheaven and from Tuesday through Fridaywe're going to be focusing on twoBeatitudes per day what do they meanwhat was Jesus saying and how does thisapply to us today we are truly living introubled times and it's important for usas followers of Jesus Christ to knowwhat it means to follow him in in apractical way it's important for us thatour Christian faith is expressed in thedaily decisions we take day by day andso as we go through the Beatitudes Ipray that like me you'll be blessed aswe discover what Jesus was saying and asI speak my prayer is that the spiritwill speak to each of our hearts butbefore we open the Beatitudes I inviteyou to bow your heads with me and wewill ask the Holy Spirit to speak to usthis morning so shall wepray our heavenly father I want to thankyou for these beautiful teachings ofJesus I thank you Father that they echodown through the centuries and theyapply to us today I ask father that yourspirit will speak to our hearts you willmove our feet you will transform ourthinking as we reflect on the simple yetprofound teachings of our Lord andsavior I ask father that you forgiveforgive me for my sins that you hide mebehind the cross of Calvary that youanoint me with your spirit today thatwhat I share will be from your throne ofgrace I ask this Mercy in jesus' nameamen the Beatitudes really are a seriesof brief statements they are simplewords and yet they have profoundmeanings these teachings of Jesus areprimarily for his disciples when we readin Matthew Chapter 5 Jesus is givingthese teachings teachings to the 12 thedisciples who've gathered around him yesthere is a wider crowd out there but inthe Beatitudes Jesus is speaking tothose who are followers of his they arehis disciples he is teaching them whatit means to live as a follower of JesusChrist and so these teachings of Jesusthey apply to any today in any corner ofthe globe wherever you may be watchingonline anybody today who considersthemselves to be a follower of Jesusthen these Beatitudes are for younow uh before we get into the firstbeatitude let's just reflect for amoment on what it means to be blessedbecause we're very familiar with thewith the Expressions uh blessed are thepeacemakers for they shall be called thechildren of God and so forth but whatdoes it mean to be blessed well we findactually that uh in the Greek and theHebrew there are two words for blessedthe first of those words in the Greek isulo we get the word eulogy from that thethe Hebrew equivalent is Baraka orBaraka this word does not appear in theBeatitudes either in Matthew nor in Lukenow the sense of the word iGo is thatwhen you are praying for God's blessingupon somebody this is the word you woulduse so for instance if you were sayingoh father I pray your blessing upon thisfamily as they embark on this journey ohFather we pray for the blessing of yourpresence As We Gather to worship youthis morning oh we might say beside asix sick person's bed father we ask foryour blessing rest upon this sick childof yours that is the word that you thatyou that is the situation where youwould use ulo but that is not the wordthat Jesus uses the word that Jesus usesum is macaros in the Greek in in Hebrewit is AIA and uh the word macaros is notused in a wish list when you wantwishing to invoke God's blessing but itis a word that recognizes an existingstate of happiness or blessedness orOneness with God in essence the wordmacaros affirms a quality ofspirituality that is already presentyou're not asking for this from GodJesus is describing this is what itmeans to live in My Kingdom we might saythat sister Jones is a blessed sisterwithin our church we're not asking Godfor a blessing when we use that phrasebut we are affirming a quality in SisterJones's life that already exists in theBeatitudes it's important that weunderstand the distinction between thesewords iGo and macarius for instance thethird beatitude says this blessed arethe meek for they shall inherit theearth now we are not to understand thisto mean if you are Meek then you willinherit the earth that would be usingthe word you but that is not what Jesususes he uses the wordmacarius what he's saying is that umblessed are the people sorry the pointis not exaltation to a kind of behaviorJesus is simply affirming that in thislife there is a blessedness for the meekand by the way they have the promisethat they will inherit the earth we willcome to that beatitude tomorrow as wejourney through these Beatitudestogether and so the the the term macarosis important for us to reflect upon thismorning the next thing I want to sharein the introduction to the Beatitudes isthe is the structure of the Beatitudesand uh I'm trying to uh move the theslides on forward if we can move to thenext slide back there uh the structureof the Beatitudes is different in Lukeuh to Matthew and here we have on thescreen the Beatitudes in Luke chapter 6and what are some of the observations wecan make about this version of theBeatitudes well you notice there thatthe Beatitudes in Luke it starts withfour blessed statements and those fourblessed statements are paralleled byfour wo statements uh so for instance wehave um if you turn in your Bibles uh toto to the the passage we're talkingabout Luke chapter 6 it says blessed areyou who are poor for yours is thekingdom of God so blessed are the poorat the top of Luke chapter 6 and then onthe bottom half of the Beatitudes therewe have woe to the rich but woe to youwho are rich for you have received yourconsolation then the second positivebeatitude is blessed are you who arehungry now for you shall be filled andthat's paralleled in verse 25 by the byum by the woe it says woe to you who arefull now for you shall be hungry thenthe third positive beatitude is found inverse 21 it said blessed are you whoweep now for you shall laugh and that isparalleled by the Third Woe of theseBeatitudes in verse 25 that says blessedor woe to you who are laughing now foryou will W mourn and weep and thenfinally uh the the fourth of theseblessings is in verse 22 blessed are youwhen people hate you when they excludeyou revile you and defame you on theaccount of the son of man rejoice inthat day and leap for Joy for surelyyour reward is great in heaven for thatis what their ancestors did to theprophets this is the longest of theBeatitudes both in Matthew and in Lukeand this one focuses on persecution andthis is paralleled in verse 26 by thewoe that goes with it it says woe to youwhen all speak well of you for that iswhat their ancestors did to the falseprophets so what can we learn about uhthese teaching of Jesus what it means tofollow Jesus just from the Luke'sversion of the Beatitudes well we noticethere that where does Jesus actuallyappear in this version of the Beatitudeshe doesn't appear in the first thesecond the third the fifth the sixth theseventh or the eighth he doesn't appearin these Beatitudes he appears in thefourth beatitude which is the longestand that has to do with persecution andyou notice that in this beatitude aboutpersecution that it's it speaks aboutnegatives blessed are you when peoplehate you when they exclude you when theyrevile you and when they defame you youhave four negatives and then you havethe heart of Luke's Beatitudes that'swhere Jesus appears on account of theson of man and when Jesus enters thepicture when we're facing persecutionthen everything becomes positive rejoicein that day and leap for Joy for surelyyour reward is great in heaven for thatis what their ancestors did to theprophets that is you'll be counted amongthe prophets because you spoke up forJesus Christ the turning point in thisbeatitude is the presence of Jesus inthis beatitude here we see that Jesusliterally he is in the heart of theBeatitudes he is in the middle of theBeatitudes he appears in the heart ofthe longest which is the fourth of theseBeatitudes what do lesson do we learnfrom this well simply this that it isunbiblical to assume that just becausethings seem to be going well in life ina material sense that things must bewell with God and it is also dangerousto assume that just because thingsappear to be going badly in life for youyou're hungry you're weeping you hatedby all men and you are poor it is isdangerous to assume that just becausethings appear to be going badly in lifethat somehow things are going wrong withGod and so this beatitude invites us tolook beyond our real the realities thatwe're experien today um if we cannotassume that if I'm rich therefore I'mblessed by God if I'm poor therefore I'mcursed by God Jesus is denying theProsperity Gospel Within TheseBeatitudes and he's inviting us to lookbeyond our physical condition howwealthy we are how happy we are how fullwe are in our stomachs and to reflect onour walk with him that goes beyond andtranscends these physical realities wealso see in this beatitude that Jesus isthe heart of the Christian Lifethis invites us to ponder does it not isJesus Christ at the heart of our livestoday is he an afterthought is he afootnote is he someone that we make talkabout on Sabbath morning or is he reallyat the heart of our daily existencebecause these Beatitudes are given toguide us in daily living and so thechallenge in Luke's Beatitudes thechallenge to us is to ask is JesusChrist at the center of my life or toput it another way does my life revolvearound Jesus Christ and his presence andmy teachings day by day so then we cometo Matthew's Beatitudes if you want toturn in your Bibles to Matthew Chapter 5we see there that Matthew structures theBeatitudes in a different way inMatthew's Beatitudes um we see that umwe have a series of blessed statementsand we're just going to go through themnow beginning in Matthew Chapter 5 uh inverse two there and again Jesus isspeaking to his disciples so if you'rewatching this uh you're in thecongregation you're watching this on thelive streaming and you're wondering whatdoes it mean to follow Jesus Christtoday these Beatitudes are a wonderfulstarter point for that discovery thatjourney of discovery of what it means tofollow Jesus and so Jesus starts inverse three by saying blessed are thepoor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdomof Heaven blessed are those who mournfor they shall be comforted blessed arethe meek for they will inherit the earthblessed are those who hunger and thirstafter righteousness for they shall befilled blessed are the merciful theyshall receive Mercy blessed are the purein heart for they shall see God blessedare the peacemakers for they shall becalled the children of God blessed arethose who are persecuted forrighteousness sake for theirs is thekingdom of heaven and then again onpersecution versus 11-2 blessed are youwhen people revile you and persecute youand utter all kinds of evil against youfalsely on my account rejoice and beglad for your reward is great in heavenfor in the same way they persecuted theprophets that were before you nowwhereas in Luke's version of theBeatitudes you have four positiveblessings followed by four negative woesand Jesus is in the heart of thoseBeatitudes in Matthew's version of theBeatitudes Jesus doesn't appear in anyof those Beatitudes until the very finalone which is the one on persecution inverses 11 and 12 and if you take a lookat those verses just a bit more closelyyou notice that just as just as Luke hasdone so so Matthew balances out thepositives with the negatives so itstarts out blessed are you when peoplerevile you that's a negative when theypersecute you that's a negative andutter all kinds of evil against youfalsely that's a negative and then theturning point is on my account thepresence of Jesus is is at the heart ofthe last of these Beatitudes so in themidst of persecution for the name ofJesus Christ when it is done when youare persecuted for Jesus Christ then thesituation is changed then the positiveskick in Rejoice be glad for your rewardis great in heaven for in the same waythey persecute to the prophets who werebefore you so whereas in Luke'sBeatitudes the question is does my liferevolve around Jesus is that Jesus andhis teachings are they the center of mylife and does everything else revolvearound themthis is a great question for Christianstoday uh we listen to many voices youmay listen to this media Outlet or thatmedia Outlet you might like thispolitician or that politician you mayactually without realizing it befollowing the philosophy of yourfavorite movie star or or or or popsinger or whoever you who may listen tobut in these Beatitudes we're invited toto listen to the words of Jesus andJesus alone to allow Jesus to be thecenter of our life that our liferevolves around him and we are Guided bythe principles of his teaching that iswhat it means to follow Jesus and inMatthew's Beatitudes it's not just thatour life revolves around Jesus but Jesusis the climax of our living that ourDream our hope our desire is to is tosee Jesus again face to face if I haveno desire to see Jesus tomorrow whywould I live for him today if I'm notfilled with the hope and joy of himsaying well done good and faithfulservant why would I put up withpersecution on his account today justaround the world even in this last weekhave been tragic stories of Martyrs forthe faith and there was a young boy latelast week who was brutally killed by amob I won't say where but it's on theother side of the world a youngChristian boy was killed for his faithand he did not recount his faith knowinghe was facing certain death for thatyoung boy the hope of seeing Jesus onceagain was enough to get him through thatchapter ofpersecution but if Jesus is not the godof our life if meeting Jesus is not thepurpose is not our driving hope if we donot have the Blessed hope but we have aknowledge of Jesus but the hope and thelove of Jesus in our hearts then it'sgoing to be hard for us to make itthrough those times of persecution andso these Beatitudes even though they arestructured differently uh in Luke andMatthew they contain uh importantquestions for us today what does my liferevolve around today is Jesus really thecenter of my life what is the focus ofmy life today am I really yearning tomeet Jesus am I hoping to meet with himone day and hear well done thou goodgood and faithful servant how does myrelationship with Jesus affect whetherI'm blessed today or not indeed M let'sturn that question around can I beblessed by God today if Jesus is not thecenter of my life and the focus of mylife if I do not build my life upon therock which in the context of The Sermonon the Mount are the teachings of Jesushimself then when the storms of lifecome my house will fade away it is thewise man and the wise woman build theirhouse upon the rock that is theteachings of Jesus that allows us tosurvive the storms that come our way inlife so with this kind of introductionin mind to the Beatitudes I want toinvite us now to to reflect on the firstof the Beatitudes it's a beautifulbeatitude it's one that uh we're veryfamiliar with maybe we learned it wememorize it in Pathfinders if this isthe first time that you're hearing theseBeatitudes I invite you to spend sometime just chewing them over them in yourmind turning o turning them over andasking what does God have to say for youin these beautiful these simple butprofound teachings of Jesus so the firstbeatitude and the only beatitude we'regoing to spend time on uh in today's uhseminar together is found in verse 3 ofMatthew 5 and it says there blessed arethe poor in spirit for theirs is thekingdom of heaven or somebody once saidI need help I can't do it alone so whatis Jesus talking about in thisbeatitude well it's interesting thatLuke has this statement Luke says Jesussays that blessed are the poor Luke doesnot say blessed are the poor in spiritbut as Matthew says blessed are the poorin spirit and so we might ask ourselvesyou know if Matthew is writing later toa wealthier Christian Community thanLuke luk um has Matthew sold out hedoesn't want to offend his Rich audienceum where as Luke says blessed are thepoor um that could really means likethose who are financially poor LukeMatthew says blessed are the poor inspirit so he softens it away from afinancial aspect has Matthew sold out toa wealthier Christian Community is hetrying to soften the the impact of thegospel for those who have are wealthy inmaterial Goods but who are maybe poor inspirit well I was say absolutely notbecause the expression poor in spirit isa profound expression of Kingdom livingand why is that well first of all we'dsay this that in the gospels poverty isneither a hindrance nor is it acondition forsalvation nor is neither is poverty aresult of Salvation Jesus does not teacha Prosperity Gospel here but neitherdoes he deny a Prosperity Gospel he'ssimply saying that poverty is neither ahindrance nor a condition nor theautomatic result of Salvation thefranciscans a very famous order of monksthey take vows of poverty and St Francisof aisi um he he committed his life topoverty and and even to this day um thethe the franciscans they they take vowsof poverty and all through the Dark Agesor the Middle Ages we had mendicantsthose who were Friars who would walkaround begging begging for their dailyneeds that was never the intent of thefranciscansFrancis ofisi his intent in setting upthe order was that the monks would notdepend on people but they would work fortheir own living and in working for ownliving on their Farms they wouldnecessarily be subsistence farmers andtherefore poor but over time thisevolved so the franciscans wouldactually start begging people uh for forthe funds that they would live on but inthis beatitude of Jesus Jesus does notidealize poverty and he does notsanction or explain that poverty is anideal spirit condition Matthew does notsay that you can be poor in body butrich in spirit nor does he say that ifyou are rich externally that somehowthis affects the the state of your walkwith God furthermore in this beatitudehere we cannot take a poor Now Richlater attitude that if I'm poor todayfinancially in the world I can lookforward to the the time when I willinherit the kingdom of God and all theriches thereof no we cannot take thismessage from the beatitude ratherMatthew throughout his gospel presentsGod as a God who lacks nothing in Exoduschapter 3: 7 and 8 and that we reflectedon this um in our sermon two nights agoon the call of Moses uh we realize thatGod's goodness to Israel was revealed inthe elimination of all conditions thatlead to poverty and human want becauseGod promised Moses to he in in Exoduschapter 3 he promised him a good land abroad land a land flowing with milk andhoney no longer would there be movingaround in the wilderness living daytoDay from the manner that would fall butnow they would lead settled agriculturallives able to plant their crops able tohave um honeybees and so forth and soGod's goodness is revealed in thepromised land that promised to Moses ofExodus 3 7-8 in the elimination of thoseconditions that lead to poverty and needyou see poverty and the ENT sufferingthat itrepresents represent a denial of thegoodness and the Perfection of God theyrepresent a denial of God's intent forhis children I've served for many yearsin Refugee situations and I can tell youthis that refugees um in refugee campsthey they they often come across asbeing aggressive and they snatch andthey grab whatever they can and uh whenwhen you come to a refugee camp ifyou're working there and you have moneyin the bank and you have food in yourfridge and you you have a supermarketdown the road that you can go and getfood from you're not worried about yourdaily bread and that changes how youlive but if everything is snatched awayfrom you and you have to leave your homeand now you're living in a camp andthere are 50,000 people fighting forfood supplies and there's only foodsupplies for 20,000 people you're notgoing to survive and you're not going tofeed your family by being polite yousuddenly have to fight for everythingyou can possibly get and I've served inRefugee zones in many parts of of theworld I've seen the transformation thattakes place in the human character whenyou are reduced to AB poverty and youhave to fight for your daily subsistencegood manners being polite standing inqueue it goes out the window in onelocation where I used to serve thecrowds were so aggressive that we usedto pile um old rusty cars burnt outwrecks in front of our warehouses justto slow the flow of the crowd towardsthe food warehouses it was a crowdcontrol measure because if you haveRusty cars and heaps of scrap metal allaround your warehouses people have toclamor over it to get to their food thisis a form of crowd control I once had totell a young intern I said we we'rewe're delivering food in this part thispart of a country and at the moment wegive food to 50,000 families a month inthis part of the world and this was withAdra many years ago and I said but wehave to reallocate 10,000 familyassignments to another region wherethere's a fresh wave of refugees and I'dlike you to go up and tell the peoplethere that we're reducing from 50 to40,000 families gettingfood now this young man was um eager toplease and he went off there and um hecame back with his tail between his legsit was a painfulexperience telling people that you areremoving their daily bread is not aneasy experience and in this beatitudehere we realize that poverty and all thesilent suffering that it representsrepresent a denial of the goodness andthe Perfection of God it reduces usbeyond what God intends us what Godintends us to be secondly we see in thisbeatitude that salvation comes to thosewho are poor in spirit but what doesthis mean we'll invite you to turn inyour Bibles to Isaiah chapter 66 whereIsaiah talks about this concept of thepoor in spirit in Isaiah chapter 66 umand many theologians believe that Jesusis is building on this teaching ofIsaiah Isaiah chapter 6 6 6 we see thereuh in verse uh 2 and Jes Isaiah istalking in verses 1-4 about what isacceptable worship to God and in themidst of this pass this passage aboutwhat is acceptable worship to God we seethere Isaiah chapter 66 the second halfof that verse it says there but this isthe one to whom I shall look to thehumble and contrite in spirit whotrembles at my word now Isaiah rarelyuses the word poor at all in his booksometimes he uses it to refer to thosewho do not have sufficient to eat suchas if you turn back to Isaiah 58 andverse 7 um Isaiah says there uh that thekind of worship that God seeks for hesays is it not to share your bread withthe hungry and to bring the homelesspoor into your house that is oneinstance where Isaiah uses the word poorto to refer to those who are literallyhungry and have nothing to eat but thenormal use in the book Isaiah of theword poor does not refer to those whoare physically hungry Isaiah uses theword poor to describe those who arehumble enough to know that they are indesperate need of God's word and whotremble at his word and so back there inIsaiah chapter 66 but this is the one towhom I shall look this is God speakingto the humble and contrite in spirit whotremble at my word essentially whatJesus is saying is the kingdom of Godcannot be received by full hands Jesusis warning us against a worldlyself-sufficiency when we have an absenceof physical need then we start to trustin ourselves and our physical resourcesand we no longer need to trust ourheavenly father for our daily breadJesus is also warning us here against areligious self-sufficiency many of hiscrowd listening to him when he firstspoke these words if you turn back toMatthew 5 many of them were Phariseesand S Sadducees they would say to Jesuslater in John's gospel we are thechildren of Abraham they were proud oftheir ethnic Heritage but they were thedescendants of Abraham but you know theythey look down on the Gentiles they hada sense of ethnic self-sufficiency theyhad a sense of religiousself-sufficiency because they followedthe teachings of Moses and in thisteaching here blessed are the poor inspirit that is those who know they needGod's grace and who tremble at God'sword Jesus is counseling us against asense of religionself-sufficiency now for some of us heretoday in our congregation or youwatching online what would religiousself-sufficiency look like it might meanfor instance believing that your nameyou've been baptized and we praise Godfor that he that believeth him isbaptized shall be saved Mark 16:16 thatis well and good but there are somepeople who then lives their lives wanderaway from God I've had experience as apastor where a church board will saywell Pastor B we haven't seen thisperson for 20 years is please could youconnect with them and ask do they stillconsider themselves an Adventist or notand when you connect with them they maybe living in Texas and your church is inin Maine for instance the other end ofthe country and as you talk with themyou realize they're leading an entirelyGodless life and you say well our churchboard would like to know would you likeyour name taken off the church roles andthey say oh no I don't want my name takeI want my name on the church roles whywell just in case Pastor just in in caseit's kind of like a a spiritualinsurance policy it's in the backpocket I know I'm not I know I'm notleading a Godly life but it's just incase I need it Jesus Is cautioning UsAgainst believing that because we haveGodly Parents or a Christian educationor praying grandmothers or terminaldegrees that we live lives of Good Deedsthat we have a great intellectualunderstanding of Doctrine and we leaveseemingly upright and moral lives he'scautioning us against relying upon thatfor our right standing for our heavenlyfather the poor in spirit are those whocome before God with empty hands who donot bring anything to God who do not sayto their Heavenly Father you owe mesalvation because of look who how good Ireally am but they come before God witha sense of utter um they they theyrealize their lack of of of worthinessand they come before God With Adesperate sense of their need for hisgrace in their lives thirdly the poor inspirit according to this par thisbattitude of Jesus they already dwellwithin the kingdom of God and what isthis Kingdom within the gospel ofMatthew well it is the sovereignty ofGod in the lives of individuals andcommunities in the Lord's Prayer laterin The Sermon on the Mount in in Matthewchapter 6 and verse 10 Jesus teaches usto pray thy kingdom come which impliesthat there is a future manifestation ofhis kingdom but then in Matthew chapterin Luke 11: 20 Jesus says to thePharisees he says but if it is by theFinger of God that I cast out the demonsthen the kingdom of God has come to youso in the teachings of Jesus there is apresent manifestation of the kingdom ofGod and there is a future manifestationof the kingdom of God we might say thereis the kingdom of Grace today and thereis the kingdom of Glory tomorrow and inthis beatitude Jesus says blessed arethe poor in spirit for theirs is theKingdom of Heaven that is they livewithin the kingdom of Grace today andthey have the hope and the promise thatwhen the kingdom of Glory manif isManifest when Jesus comes again theywill be found in the Lamb's Book of Lifeso what are the implications of thisbeatitude for us today well firstlypoverty is a sign that God's plan forHumanity is not being fulfilled turn inyour Bible to Matthew chap 11 just a fewchapters later and John the Baptist he'snot sure whether Jesus is the Messiahand he send messages to Jesus and hesaid are you really the one that we werehoping for are you really the Messiah ofGod and Jesus answered in Matthew 11 andverse 4 and this is what he says he saysgo and tell John what you see and hearthe blind receive their sight the lamewalk the lepers are cleansed the deafhear the dead are raised and the poorhave good news brought to them andblessed is anyone who takes no offenseatme only well-fed Christians would assumethat food would not be a tangiblemanifestation of the good news of theking kingdom of God to chronicallyhungryChristians and the reality today in manyparts of the world is that Disciples ofJesus arehungry a number of years ago it was myprivilege to preach in Haiti and when Istood up to preach and I realized thatall the children were fast asleep in thepews and when the service was over Iasked the pastor I said how come all ofthe children are asleep he said wellPastor he said they have one meal a daytheir meal today is after church Churchthey've gone 24 hours without a mealthey've gone to school yesterday they'reliving in the heat those children arechronically hungry that's why they'resleeping through your sermon and sohowever you break the bread of life fromthe word of God those children arelooking for a literal loaf of bread tosatisfy their hunger it is only well-fedChristians would assume that thebringing of the Gospel of Jesus Christdoes not involve ministering to thephysical needs of those who are in needtoday the teaching of the parable of thesheep and the goats later on in thisGospel Matthew 25:31-46indicates to us today that any share inthe future kingdom of God is equatedwith our efforts today to alleviate theimpact of poverty and suffering as Jesussaid I was hungry and you gave me foodtherefore if the proclamation of thegood news of Jesus Christ of the kingdomof God is to have any impact today Iwant to challenge us today by reflectingon the fact that preaching the gospelmust be ACC companied by reversing theconditions and alleviating the impact ofhuman suffering and human poverty wecannot just preach the gospel and leavepeople hungry the bread of life is isphysical as well as spiritual blessedare the poor in spirit says Jesus werecognize our own desperate need of Godand we ask God to meet our needs but inso doing we are to be sensitive to theneeds of others physical and spiritualand we're invited by Jesus in hisbeatitude to minister to those who arecaught up in the snares of povertysecondly if we turn back to thisbeatitude here blessed are the poor inspirit for theirs is the Kingdom ofHeaven the obvious implication here isthat a proud spirit is a cause ofstumbling that it will keep you out ofthe kingdom of God if the poor in spiritare in the kingdom of God those who arehumble those who tremble at the word ofGod those who have a need of their selfum their lack and they're desperate uhfor God's grace in their lives then thecoroller is also true that those who arefilled with their own self-sufficiencywho come to God on the basis of theirown Merit and their own worthiness andsay father you owe us our Eternalsalvation because look how good weare then those people are outside of thekingdom of God the poor in spiritacknowledge God as the ultimate sourceof power of life and of meaning and soin this gospel particularly in Matthew13:44-46 the the poor in spirit reordertheir lives in order that they may servethose in need around them if you want toturn there for a moment Matthew Chapter13 uh where Jesus talks more about whatit means to be in the kingdom of Godremember blessed are the poor in spiritfor theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven inMatthew Chapter 13 Jesus has threeParables about what it means to live inthat kingdom of heaven and you see thereI'll just read one of those Parables nowverse 45 Matthew 13 again the king ofHeaven is like a merchant in search offine pearls on finding one pearl ofGreat Value he went and sold all that hehad and he bought it now the importantthing about this description of thekingdom of God is Jesus is not sayingthat the kingdom of God is thePearl what does he liken the kingdom ofGod to he says the Kingdom of Heaven islike a merchant in search of finepearls that is it is the process ofsearching for the pearl of Great Valuethat is a description of what it meansto experience the kingdom of God whatdoes that mean in practice well if youknow there is something of Great Valuein your garden that you you you layaside everything in your life and youfocus single-mindedly on finding thatthing of Great Value in your garden yesthe kingdom of God is that searchingprocess it means putting aside thosethings that may tie me down puttingaside those things that are of secondaryimportance putting aside those thingsthat distract me from making Jesus thecenter of my life and the focus of mylife and so in this beatitude here Jesusis inviting us to to turn away fromthose material things in our life thatoffer a full sense of security and tosearch for that pearl of great price andit is in the searching for that pearl ofgreat price that we are emptied ofself-sufficiency and we trust in noother Foundation other than Jesus andhis teachings in our livestoday and then there is thirdly and weturn back to Matthew Chapter 5 andfinally here blessed are the poor inspirit for theirs is the Kingdom ofHeaven the poor in spirit live today bythe principles of the kingdom of God youcannot say that you dwell within thekingdom of God but refuse to live by theprinciples of the kingdom of God if weif we uh call ourselves disciples andfollowers of Jesus Christ we've beenborn again into God's kingdom then weare to live the principles of thatKingdom and in Practical terms the poorin spirit in Matthew and in Isaiah theythey strive for justice for peace andfor righteousness therefore those whoare poor in spirit do not stand idly bywhile injustices are being perpetratedwhile conflicts are encouraged and whilerighteousness is trampled upon in ourfamilies in our churches or in widerSociety no the empty hands that areempty that they can receive God'ssalvation are not made lame in theprocess rather these empty hands thatreceive God's salvation are strengthenedprecisely so that we can serve ourneighbor that we can meet our neighborsneed for bread and food and security andhousing and they can receive the love ofGod blessed are the poor in spirit theyare not limp Christians who who are whooffer no benefit to society those whocome to God with empty hands when wereceive this salvation from God ourhands are strengthened that we might bea blessing in our community that wemight live out the principles of thekingdom of God in all of its beauty inour broken and our battered communitieswherever we may be livingtoday so I want to close with a fewquestions for personal reflectiontoday do I come before God with trulyemptyhands do I come before God today with asense of my ownself-sufficiency I work for the church Ihave Adventist parents I studied at anAdventist College God owes me sem mysalvation or do we come before God witha sense of our own lack a sense of ourown worthiness do we tremble at the wordof God we realize our sinfulness and wecome before God and say father help menot because I deserve it but because youare merciful and you Delight to bemerciful to yourchildren secondly how do we respond tothose who are caught up in poverty todaywe can respond intellectually how do werespond practically and wherever we maylive in the world today you will alwaysfind those who are caught up in povertyliving down your own down your ownStreet or within your own Community itis not hard in our world today to findthose who are struggling to feed theirchildren or to put a roof over theirhomes over their heads how do we respondto those caught inpoverty in whose kingdom am I livingtoday does my life reflect the values ofthe king om of God or does my lifereflect the values of the kingdoms ofthis world these are good questionsblessed are the poor in spirit saidJesus for theirs is the Kingdom ofHeaven the world will see the principlesof the Kingdom of Heaven lived out inthe lives of the poor in spirit thosewho are humble those who have no senseofself-sufficiency those who realize thatthey live by the grace of God day by dayand those whose hands are strengthenedas they receive re God's grace to be ablessing in their Community to bind upthe Brokenhearted to heal those who arehurting to feed the poor to bringshelter to the homeless to visit thosein prison etcetc what promise or invitation from Godis there for you today in thisbeatitude is God speaking to your heartthis morning this evening wherever youmay be watching blessed said Jesus arethe poor in spirit if you hear the HolySpirit speaking to your heart as I sharethese words with you today do not Hardenyour hearts do not say I'll think aboutthis tomorrow do not say I'm busy todayI'll think about this at a moreconvenient time no bless blessed saidJesus are the poor in spirit today as wehear these words do not Harden yourhearts do not quell the movings of thespirit upon your heart but ask God thatyou indeed will be Cel among the B theBlessed who are poor in spirit that youmay experience the blessings of livingin God's kingdom today as we journeythrough these Beatitudes we're going tolook more deeply at the the remainingBeatitudes over the coming four daysit's my prayer that as we journeythrough these Beatitudes we'll not justbe learning stuff for our heads butwe're going to be experiencing thetransformation of heart that comes whenthe Holy Spirit Works upon us and bringsa harvest of righteousness in our livestoday tomorrow and in the coming daysweeks and months may God bless us as wejourney through these Beatitudestogether and remember blessed are thepoor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdomof Heaven amen