Add correct line breaks, correct capitalisation, correct punctuation, correct Australian English spelling, and correct KJV Bible verse quotations and references to my paragraphs where applicable. But do NOT — I repeat — do NOT alter or change ANY words from my paragraphs under ALL circumstances.
Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit (Matthew 5:3)
I. What Does It Mean To Be Poor In Spirit?
II. Why Is Poor In Spirit A Blessing?
Our text for the message is taken from Matthew 5:3. We will read from verse 1.
Matthew 5:1, "And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:1–3).
The Lord bless the reading of his holy and sacred Word.
We will begin a new series of messages based on the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, which I have also taught the young people's group several years ago, but it is always good for us to go back to God's Word and remind ourselves of the valuable lessons that we can learn.
What is the meaning of “Beatitude”? The word “Beatitude” is a name derived from the Latin, which means blessedness. The word blessed can mean happy, fortunate, or blissful. It is a state of happiness. The world will tell you that happy are the rich, the powerful, the successful, the famous, the strong, and so forth.
But notice the phrase, "For theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The kingdom of heaven is often used interchangeably with the kingdom of God. So, this is a reference to the believers, because only the believers belong to the kingdom of heaven. In other words, the blessedness that Jesus was talking about here is only for the believers. It is a blessedness that can come to us through only one way—and that is our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
To be blessed is not a superficial feeling of well-being based on the circumstances. If the situation is good, I'm blessed. If the situation is not good, then I'm not blessed. That is not the case. It is a deep, supernatural, spiritual well-being of happiness based on the fact that our lives are right with God, and we are the children of God.
Notice the Beatitudes are progressive. They are in a logical order. And being poor in spirit is number one on the list. Why? Because it reflects the right attitude we should have toward our spiritual condition, which would then lead us to mourn, to be meek, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be merciful, to be pure in heart, to have a peaceful spirit, and so forth. That is why it is at the top of the list.
The title of our message is “Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit”. And there are two points, or rather two questions in our message. Firstly, what does it mean to be poor in spirit? And secondly, why is being poor in spirit a blessing?
I. What Does It Mean To Be Poor In Spirit?
What is the meaning of poor in spirit? The word poor means to shrink, cower, crouch, or cringe, like the way the beggar would often do in those days, or even today. When a person is reduced to the situation whereby he has to beg in the streets, he will crouch in a corner with one hand reaching out to receive charity. And with the other hand, he covers his face in shame because of his poverty.
So, this word does not simply mean poor, but extremely poor, desperately poor, or begging poor, so to speak. Now, this is not about material poverty, but spiritual poverty. How we know? Because of the word spirit.
It is to recognise our spiritual poverty. To see ourselves as we really are, lost, helpless, hopeless, that apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, we are spiritually dead, no matter what our education, wealth, social status, accomplishments, or achievements may be. It is to understand that we have no saving resources in ourselves, and we can only beg for mercy and grace. The pride is gone. The self-righteousness, self-assurance, and self-confidence are gone. It is a spiritual poverty.
Let me give you a classic example of someone in the Bible who was poor in spirit. Remember the Pharisee and the publican in the Gospel of Luke 18. The Pharisee stood praying in the temple. And he proudly prayed to himself, "God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.” (Luke 18:11b-12)
On the other hand, the publican was standing afar off. And he would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." (Luke 18: 3) Which one of them is poor in spirit? The publican, right? Spiritually, he was so poor, begging poor.
Remember like a beggar with one hand reaching out for charity and the other hand covering his face in shame. This publican dare not even look up into heaven.
When we say the publican was spiritually poor, we do not mean the Pharisee was spiritually rich, but rather the publican was able to recognise his own spiritual poverty, not the Pharisee. That is why Jesus said, "I tell you, this man," referring to the publican, "went down to his house justified rather than the other." (Luke 18:14) And listen carefully to what Jesus said. "For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" (Luke 18:14).
So, what does that teach us about being poor in spirit? Humility, right? To be poor in spirit is to be humble.
Let me give you a second example of someone who was poor in spirit. Remember King David? How he sinned against God in committing adultery with Bathsheba and murdering her husband. When Nathan the prophet confronted him of his sins and then exposing him, what was David's response?
Allow me to read for you Psalm 51. David said, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest" (Psalm 51:1-4).
And he went on and on and on to talk about how he was born in sin. Even when he was still in his mother's womb. And then finally he said in verse 17, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Psalm 51:17). What kind of a broken spirit and a contrite heart was David talking about?
It is the same thing as being poor in spirit. It is a brokenness which will lead us to repentance. It is not someone who is hard and cold and indifferent when he's being confronted by sins. But he will break down and cried out to God for mercy and repent. So a person who is poor in spirit is humble and repentant.
And thirdly, he's also someone who will recognise who he really is. Look at the word spirit. It is the same word for soul. A person is made up of two parts, the body and the soul. Soul and spirit mean the same thing.
The physical body is made up of different faculties, like the legs, the arms, the hands, the eyes, the ears, the vital organs, and so forth. The soul is also made up of different faculties. The heart, the feelings, the emotions, the ability to have compassion and empathy, the mind, the understanding, the thinking, the inner man, the conscience, and so forth.
That is why when a person dies, and the soul leaves the body, the body no longer has any ability to think, to feel emotions, to understand, to know what is right and wrong. Why? Because when the soul leaves the body, the soul takes all the faculties along with it. So, what you have left is just the body.
To be poor in spirit means we take all the faculties of the soul, our heart, our thinking, our emotions, our feelings, our understanding, our conscience, and we acknowledge that we are so spiritually depraved in all these faculties, that unless God would do something, unless God would take our soul and transform our inner man, we would remain a wretched sinner.
Have you ever thought to yourself, as a believer, ‘How can I be thinking this sinful thoughts? How can I be having these evil desires? How can I be having these wicked feelings?’ And then you feel so disappointed with yourself. If we are true to ourselves, we have all experienced that. That is what poor in spirit will cause us to recognise who we really are and why we need God at every moment of our lives.
Fourthly, a person who is poor in spirit will turn his eyes away from himself and look to God. When you are poor in spirit, remember it is a spiritual poverty. The pride is gone. The self-righteousness, self-assurance, and self-confidence are all gone. So, what do you have left of yourself? Nothing.
That is when you will turn your eyes away from yourself and look to God. You will not be preoccupied with yourself. Because in the first place, there is nothing in yourself worthy to be preoccupied with. You will be preoccupied with God.
Next, a person who is poor in spirit will not give any opportunity for the flesh to be proud. Anything that will produce pride, you will remove and avoid those things. Rather than seeking for praises, compliments, and popularity, you'll be very careful with those things.
But do you know that there is such a thing as being proud of humility? Or proud to be humble. It is quite self-contradictory. I think the word they used to describe this kind of statement is oxymoron.
There was a man who went to his pastor and said,
‘Pastor, please pray for me that I will be nothing.’
The pastor knew he was a proud man, and he told him, ‘Don't worry about it. You are nothing. You just have to acknowledge it.’
You see, there's nothing wrong when you are being praised for doing something. Sometimes when we are being praised or honoured, to ungraciously reject the recognition may be an act of pride, rather than of humility. The problem is when you seek to be praised or honoured. That is the problem.
For example, if you are good at singing, naturally, sometimes people will praise you. There's nothing wrong with that. Accept it and move on. But it is when you sing because you want to be praised. You want to be honoured. That is the problem. A person who is poor in spirit will not do that. He will not give any opportunity for the flesh to be proud.
Next, a person who is poor in spirit will not complain about his situation. He will not complain, no matter how difficult the situation is. Why? Because he knows that he deserves worse than anything he can ever experience in this life.
Dear friend, do you realise the reason why people would often complain? It is because they feel that they deserve something better than what they have received. She shouldn't have treated me better. Or I should have been given a better position. Or I should have a better house, a better car, a better job. Notice the word better, which means this is not good enough for me. Give me something else.
To be poor in spirit is the opposite. I do not deserve this. I am unworthy of this. I mean you genuinely feel it. This is too good for me. I should not be receiving this. In other words, to be poor in spirit is to have a thankful spirit, always giving thanks to God for the things that you have received.
Finally, a person who is poor in spirit will be prayerful. Take a moment and think of the word poor. Begging poor, desperately poor. And the picture of a beggar begging for physical sustenance. The beggar is hungry. He does not know when his next meal will come. If it does not come in time, he may die of hunger.
And his attitude is not, ‘Well, if you want to give, you give. If you don't want to give, that is up to you.’ No, that is not his attitude. He is pleading and begging for help. Just as the physical beggar begs for physical sustenance, the spiritual beggar, the person who is poor in spirit, will also beg for spiritual sustenance, without which he will not be able to survive.
He knows he needs God and his Word to feed his soul. Otherwise, his inner man would be empty. And that will lead him to beg, pray, and cried out to God.
Have you ever experienced the feeling that God is not speaking to you through his Word? You come for worship service. You feel that God is not speaking to you through the messages, through the worship, through the singing of hymns, through prayers, through the fellowship of the saints. How do you feel? You feel so terrible, so sad, so devastated.
And how do we explain that kind of feeling? Poor in spirit. And what do you do next? You pray and cried out to God, right? That is what will do. So, the person who is poor in spirit will also be prayerful.
Now, I want to say this. What I'm sharing with you regarding what it means to be poor in spirit and why is poor in spirit a blessing, they are not exhaustive. There may be other points. But nonetheless, these are the key points to help us better understand what this verse means.
II. Why Is Poor In Spirit A Blessing?
Now, we move on to our second point. Why is poor in spirit a blessing? How can the feeling of helplessness, hopelessness, unworthiness, and emptiness be a blessing?
Firstly, the most important reason why it is a blessing is because it is not man's opinion. It is God's opinion. Who is the one who said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit"? Look at the preceding verses. Who is the one who opened his mouth and taught the disciples saying this? It is Jesus Christ.
We may not see it as a blessing. We may not understand it as a blessing. But it doesn't matter because Jesus says it. And whatever he says is true. And that is why we believe it.
The second reason why it is a blessing is because of the phrase, "For theirs is the kingdom of heaven." This is a most wonderful promise, isn't it? But what is the connection between the poor in spirit and the kingdom of heaven?
Remember to be poor in spirit is to be humble. And humility is the basic foundational element in becoming a Christian. Unless a person surrenders his pride, humbles himself, and come to God, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. Until the spirit is humbled, or the inner person is poor in spirit, Jesus Christ cannot be our Lord and Saviour.
Dear friend, when you are the king, then Jesus cannot be your king. As long as you are in charge of your life, Jesus cannot be your Lord. Until you humble yourself and acknowledge, I am not the king. I am not the Lord. Jesus Christ is my king and my Lord. You cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Now, this humility does not begin with us. It is not something that you and I can accomplish in our own power. It is a supernatural spiritual work. It is God giving us the ability to see that we are helpless, hopeless, unworthy, and empty. And we cannot save ourselves.
Today, there are some people who think that by going to the monastery and giving up a life of worldly enjoyment, they have made themselves to be poor in spirit. Or to go into the deepest jungle and live a life separated from the world, they have made themselves to be poor in spirit. All these self-efforts are foolish and in vain.
Take a moment and consider the work of God in saving the soul of a person. Someone who is spiritually dead. As Ephesians 2:2 said, someone who is walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that is Satan, who is by nature the children of God's wrath. How did God save such a person?
Well, God begins his salvation work by first humbling the person, allowing him to see that he is totally depraved. He cannot save himself. There's no way. Only one way. He needs a Saviour. That he may call out to Jesus to save them. Can you see how it always begins with this poor in spirit?
That is why whenever we share the gospel and we see the recipient feeling wretched, being humbled by his sinful condition, we know that there's hope. Because there is this poor in spirit. Which means God may be working in his life.
But on the other hand, whenever we see someone responding to the gospel we share by being cold, proud, and indifferent, we know that there's no hope. Or at least at that moment there's no hope. Why? Because we don't see this poor in spirit.
That is why to be poor in spirit is such a great blessing. It is the only way a person can enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Now, if this verse is about the believers because of the phrase, "For theirs is the kingdom of heaven," and we know that every believer has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, then it means that this poor in spirit is also the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit works in our lives producing this poor in spirit for many reasons. Not only in our conversions but also in our sanctification. After we are saved, we go through this process of sanctification. We need to be cleansed, right? But to be cleansed of what? To be cleansed of our sins that we may repent and be transformed in the way we live our lives. To be cleansed from our pride that we die to ourselves. To be cleansed from our self-confidence that we will not trust in ourselves but in the almighty God.
So in such times the Holy Spirit will work in our hearts in such a way that you and I will have this poor in spirit. That we will be sanctified.
Sometimes it is not because we have sinned but because the Holy Spirit wants to empower us so that you and I can be mightily used by God. To make us realise that there's no way we can ever do this. There's no way we can ever be able to serve in this capacity. The circumstances and situations do not permit us. Our resources and our strength do not allow us.
And then we are brought to this level of being poor in spirit. This spiritual poverty that we are absolutely nothing. And then we see the wonder-working of the Holy Spirit.
Allow me to end by quoting some wonderful promises of God. What he would do to the one who is poor in spirit.
Remember the psalmist said in Psalm 51:17, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Which means when we come before God with this broken spirit, this helplessness, hopelessness, and unworthiness, looking to him alone, it is like a sacrifice to God which he will accept. He will not despise.
Proverbs 15:33, "The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility." In other words, if you want honour, not in a worldly sense, in a godly sense, you must first have humility.
James 4:10, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up."
1 Peter 5:6, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time." To exalt and to lift up means the same thing. It is to be elevated by God himself. Have you ever heard the saying, "The way up is down"? Which is quite true in this sense. If you want to be lifted up by God, exalted by God, then you need to be humble, to be poor in spirit.
So, dear friend, to be poor in spirit is such a great blessing. Why? Because Jesus said it. "Blessed are the poor in spirit." It is the only way to enter into the kingdom of heaven. It is the work of the Holy Spirit producing this poor in spirit. And it is a great blessing because ultimately we will be accepted by God, honoured by God, lifted and exalted by him. And that is all that matters. "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3).
Let us look to the Lord in prayer.
Our Father in heaven, indeed, as we consider the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, we have come to the first of the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
And we have learned what it means to be poor in spirit. And why is poor in spirit such a great blessing. And we pray that we will always humble ourselves and turn our eyes away from ourselves and unto thee. That we will always be prayerful, be humble, and to know who we really are. And to always trust in thee and thee alone.
And to come before thee despite our feeling of helplessness, hopelessness, and unworthiness. But thou has saved us and the Holy Spirit continues to do his mighty work of transforming our lives by producing this feeling of being poor in spirit.
And the more we turn to thee, the more we will be strengthened by thee. And this is what we believe in because it is not man's opinion. It is thy Word. It is what our Lord Jesus himself who said to his disciples, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.