Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 5-7 Series

The Poor in Spirit – Matthew 5:3

12-8-23 – Sorry for the length of this post.  There was so much here it took me a month to sort through it!

Matthew 5:3 NIV1984

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

I’ve been praying about how to start writing on the SOTM (Sermon on the Mount).  This morning the Holy Spirit spoke this unlikely scripture to me:

James 4:8a – 8  Come near to God and he will come near to you.”

Context, Context, Context!

As I was asking God to meet with me, open the word, and speak to me through His word, the Holy Spirit quickened to me, “draw near to God and he will draw near to you.”  This is an often quoted passage of scripture and my immediate thought was “that’s what I’m doing.”  Then another thought came that said I should read that passage in context.  Not remembering the exact chapter and verse I looked it up and found it in James 4:8.  Not only was I remembering the passage out of context but it was only a part of the verse!  The whole passage reads:

 James 4:1-10 NIV1984

“1  What causes fights and quarrels  among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2  You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3  When you ask, you do not receive,  because you ask with wrong motives,  that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 4  You adulterous  people, don’t you know that friendship with the world  is hatred toward God?  Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.  5  Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?  6  But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”   7  Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8  Come near to God and he will come near to you.  Wash your hands,  you sinners, and purify your hearts,  you double-minded.  9  Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.  10  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

When I read the section leading up to verse 8 and verse 8 itself, I saw that God was answering my prayers on how to start writing on the SOTM (Sermon on the Mount).  The verses hear are an example of the outworking of the first three Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12: humility→repentance→submission→empowerment.  This is the cycle that God would have us live.  It is the model of repentance that Jesus taught when He said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

Humility is the Answer to the Question

This may seem like an obvious question to ask but it’s one I’ve been asking the Lord recently since I’ve apparently not been doing it very well.  The question is, “How do I submit to the Lord?”  The answer is found in humility.  There can be no submission without repentance and there can be no repentance without true humility.  If I am not in a place of humility I cannot submit to the Lord!  

The first of The Beatitudes is Matthew 5:3

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

The answer to the question of “how do I submit” is by becoming “poor in spirit” or by becoming humble.  The promise is entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Becoming Humble is a Denial of Self

Matthew 16:24-26 NIV1984

“24  Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  25  For whoever wants to save his life  will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.  26  What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

In order to be a true disciple of Christ I must “die to self” in humility recognizing my sinfulness.  That is becoming “poor in spirit.” 

Again, here is the pattern of repentance: denying myself (humility)→taking up my cross (repentance/submission)→following Him (meekness, empowerment).

The Model of the World

James 4:1-3

“1  What causes fights and quarrels  among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2  You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3  When you ask, you do not receive,  because you ask with wrong motives,  that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”

• 1. The pattern of this world says I should get what I want, when I want it, no matter the cost.  It is based on pride
  • a. I want something – “your desires that battle within you”
  • b. I’ll “fight and quarrel” to get it
  • c. I’ll “kill and covet”
    • i. The 10 Commandments say both “thou shall not kill” and “thou shall not covet” (Exodus 20:13, 17).  Jesus likened being angry with your brother to murder and being subject to the same judgment as a murderer (Matthew 5:21-22)
    • ii. The thief (Satan who is the ultimate example of the world) comes to steal (by extension to covet), kill, and destroy (covetousness carried out to its ultimate logical end)
  • d. I pray amiss
    • i. “You do not have, because you do not ask God” which is pride
    • ii. “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” which is also pride

Transition to God’s Way

James 4:4-6

“4  You adulterous  people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?  Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.  5  Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?  6  But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”            

• 1. Friendship with the world makes me an enemy of God
  • a. Spiritual adultery -“you adulterous people”
    • i. The 10 Commandments say “thou shall not have any gods before me.”
      • a) to do so is to commit spiritual adultery
      • b) it makes me an enemy of God
      • c) when I am on the throne, I am my own god!
• 2. God’s Spirit in me “envies intensely”
  • a. He jealously desires a relationship with me
  • b. The 10 Commandments – “for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,” (Exodus 20:5)

•  3. “He gives us more grace”
  • a. “8  For it is by grace  you have been saved,  through faith —and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9  not by works,  so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV1984)
  • b. no one would come to the Father without His extension of grace to us
  • c. mercy is not receiving from God what we do deserve (the wages of sin is death – Rom. 6:23a) and grace is receiving from God what we do not deserve (but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord – Rom. 6:23b)
  • d. salvation comes by grace, through faith, and the faith is a gift of God, not our own! (Eph. 2:8-9).  Zero pride, 100% humility!

• 4. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble”
  • a. Satan’s sin: pride→disobedience→rebellion
  • b. God’s remedy for us: humility→obedience through repentance/submission →salvation through faith in Christ

God’s Way of Salvation

James 4:7-10

“7  Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8  Come near to God and he will come near to you.  Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts,  you double-minded.  9  Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.  10  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up”

• 1. Submit to God (remember, I can’t submit without true humility – see v. 10)
• 2. Resist the devil who tempts the evil desires in us
  • a. James 1:14 NIV1984 – “but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.”
• 3. Come near to God in humility with an attitude of repentance and submission.  That is the heart that God longs for in me.  Then He will come near to me.
• 4. Wash your hands, purify your hearts, grieve, mourn, and wail (godly sorrow that leads to repentance)
  • a. “Wash your hands, you sinners” refers to those who aren’t saved = humbling myself recognizing my sinfulness
  • b. “Purify your hearts, you double-minded” refers to nominal Christians with a foot in the world = recommitting my life to wholly doing things God’s ways not mine or the world’s ways
  • c. Laughter to mourning and joy to gloom = moving from the world’s ways to God’s way through repentance
    • i) the world’s way that brings false laughter and false joy (the pleasures of sin for a season).  It ends in eternal separation from God and will land me in hell
    • ii) God’s way of salvation brings reconciliation with God which is true joy and lasts for eternity
• 5. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up
  • a. Salvation comes through humility (being poor in spirit) and expressing godly sorrow for my sins (mourning)
  • b. Salvation brings me to a place of being “lifted up” to a place of meekness which is empowerment to live a godly life
• 6. Satan tried to lift up his throne above the Most High God
  • a. Isaiah 14:13 NIV1984 – “You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.”
  • b. In salvation, God lifts me up to be an heir of God and a co-heir with Christ

Jesus’ Example of Being “Poor in Spirit”

Philippians 2:5-11 NIV1984

5  Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:  

6  Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God  something to be grasped,  7  but made himself nothing,  taking the very nature  of a servant,  being made in human likeness. 

8  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!  

9  Therefore God exalted him  to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,  

10  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  

11  and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,  to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus humbled Himself, became obedient to the Father, then God exalted Him providing salvation to all who would believe in Jesus’ name.  Jesus’ attitude was one of Humility→Obedience→Salvation

My attitude should be the same.  I need to see my life in the perspective of God’s holiness, righteousness, and perfection.  I need to look at God’s standard and not compare myself to others because I can look pretty good when I compare myself to others.  But when I compare myself to God, I am immediately humbled and become “poor in spirit.”  This brings about the mourning James spoke of that leads to repentance and the second Beatitude, (Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted – more about this in my next blog). When my attitude is one of seeing my true nature in light of God’s standard of perfection I am humbled, mourn over my sinfulness, then repent and submit to God.  God then lifts me up in salvation (my entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven) to a place of meekness enabling me to begin to walk in His calling for me through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer:

Father , thank you that you have provided a way out of my pride, disobedience and rebellion.  Thank you for bringing me to a place of becoming “poor in spirit.” As I have mourned my sinfulness, thank you for accepting my submission to you. And as I have come to you in humility, thank you for your salvation through Jesus and lifting me up to a place of meekness and empowerment to follow your calling on my life.  I pray for all who may read this that you would draw near to them that they may know you as Lord and Savior and that you would empower them to walk the path to which you have called them.

Amen