Sermon on the Mount

Week 04 – Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

Review
The Sermon on the Mount is the core of Jesus’ yoke and if we want to be true Jesus followers, then we
need to understand how to live out his yoke. The main purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to show
how to live a life that God finds pious, that is, how to live out the righteousness of God here on Earth.
To do this, Jesus begins his sermon with the “Principles of the Yoke,” the Beatitudes. Last week we
learned that the while the word “Blessed” literally means “happy,” it is much more than that. It more
closely resembles something akin to “Held in honor by God” or “In a righteous relationship with God.”

We also learned that the first four principles talk about our vertical relationship with God, while the
second four discuss our horizontal relationships with other men.

Introduction
Today we are going to start to delve into each of the Principles one-at-a-time by looking at the first one,
“Blessed are the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Ice Breaker Question: Who are some of the people you admire and why?

Poor in Spirit
Discussion Question

1. When you hear the phrase ‘poor in spirit,’ what do you think? What images or people pop
into your head?
2. What does it mean to you to be ‘poor in spirit?’

The phrase "poor in spirit: in Matthew 5:3 is an abbreviated idiom that refers to the "poor and crippled
in spirit" from Isaiah 66:2. It means those that have come to the end of their strength and cry out in
desperation to God, acknowledging they have no righteousness of their own.

Contrast this with a different attitude. If you have this God thing figured out, if you’re convinced that
you do all the right things that make your God happy, if you have no questions, no doubts, no fear – you
aren’t poor in spirit – you’re rich in spirit.

Discussion Question

1. What are some occasions that you have been aware of being ‘poor in spirit’ and how have
you experienced blessing as a result?
 2. What are some occasions that you have had to interact with someone who is ‘rich in spirit’?
How did they treat you? How did that make you feel?
3. What are some occasions you have been aware of being ‘rich in spirit’? How do you think
the other person felt?
4. What are some of the things that we use to replace our need for God (In our own lives and
in the church)? (Revelation 3:14-22)

I think the description of “rich in spirit” describes how the Pharisees and teachers of the law viewed
themselves. They knew it all. They had all the answers. They were proud people who relished in their
successes at keeping the law and looked down on others who did not do as well as they.

I think we can see the same thing in modern churches today. There are “church tyrants” who have all
the right answers. They view doubts and asking tough questions as a “lack of faith.” They are secure in
their understanding and their interpretation of their doctrine. They have a “ready answer” for any
question and disparage anyone does not.

Kingdom of Heaven
The phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” and “Kingdom of God” are interchangeable. Matthew is the only
author to use “Kingdom of Heaven” and it is most likely to be sensitive to his intended audience, Jews,
who would be offended by using the name of God.

Discussion Question

1. What is the Kingdom of Heaven?

2. Where is the Kingdom of Heaven?
3. When is the Kingdom of Heaven?
4. What was God’s original design for mankind?
5. Who “rules the earth” and why? (John 12:31, 14:30)

The word “kingdom” gets confused in English. "The kingdom" means "those who are ruled," never a
territorial designation. The phrase, “The Kingdom of God has come near,” means “God is taking over as
king,” and to “enter the kingdom of God” is to come under his rule, to accept him as king.

There is a two-pronged focus in which the kingdom is both present and future. The Kingdom can be
presently realized when an individual submits his entire life to God’s rule but also the Kingdom will come
in the future when God forcefully re-establishes His rule over all of creation.

Discussion Question

1. What insights do we gain about the Kingdom of Heaven from the Kingdom parables
(Matthew 13)?
Remember that our premise is that the 5 discourses of Matthew make up Jesus’ yoke and the Sermon
on the Mount is the “core” of that yoke. The kingdom parables in Matthew 13 are an expansion of the
yoke.

Let’s put ourselves in the sandals of the first century Jews. I f we could get into a time machine and
travel back right before Christ was born and conduct a survey of what the average view was expecting
the kingdom of God to be like, and what the Messiah king would be like and do, what would be their
answers?

The previous 700 years leading up to the birth of Christ had created a climate, an expectation in Israel
for a certain type of Messiah King, a certain type of kingdom. In Exodus 19:5-6 God promises Moses to
build the people of Israel into a great kingdom, a holy nation, a nation of priests, if they follow his
commandments. It was conditional and we know the Israelites did not keep their end of the bargain.
Not only did they not allow God to be their king, but the kings that they put over them, ended up not
following God, dividing the nation and God was forced to step in with judgment.

And, for 700 years the Jews plunged downward until God gave them over to the Assyrians and to the
Babylonians who took them away to exile. Even when the exiles returned to Jerusalem in greatly
reduced numbers, they were a nation in a land that gets occupied by the Persians, then by the Greeks,
and then finally by the Romans. So, even when they came back from exile, they have about 400 years of
continued occupation and then tacked onto that was a period of silence in the Biblical text. No more
prophets showed up for Israel, but all around them there was occupation.

Now, think about putting yourself in that situation for a moment. This is the culture of Israel when Jesus
shows up. There were basically three responses to this occupation by the people.

1. Religious Separatist
Separate yourself as much as possible from the wicked world, develop a religious system that
insulates you from the godless culture around you and wait for God to do whatever it is that
God is going to do. And we really see this in the lives of the Pharisee's at that time. And in the
extreme, in the lives of the Essenes that lived in Qumran. Not only did they remove themselves
from the pagan culture surrounding them, they removed themselves even from the Jewish
culture and went out and lived in caves and waited for the Messiah to show up.

2. Religious Compromise
This is a route that was taken by Herod during the time. Build yourself fortresses and palaces;
get along with your political bosses as well as you can, do as well as you can, and hope that in
some way God will validate it.

3. Religious Zealots
This route taken by the people who eventually revolted against the Romans. Say your prayers,
sharpen your swords, make yourself holy to fight a holy war and God will give you victory, and
we see this a little bit back in Israel's history with the Maccabean Revolt.
Now, we know Jesus promised the Kingdom of Heaven to us and we have been waiting for fulfillment of
that for 2,000 years. How have we responded to that waiting?

1. Religious Separatist
We know how easy it is as Christians to surround ourselves with all things “Christian”: Christian
radio, Christian television stations, Christian music, Christian yellow pages, Christian books both
fiction and nonfiction. We spend all your time with your friends from church. So, it is very
possible to insulate ourselves from the world around us and let God do whatever it is that God is
going to do. And, of course we see this in the extreme and certain Amish communities or
Mennonites communities that have done this.

2. Religious Compromise
Make the world your buddy. Do your job well, build a comfortable life, don't offend anyone with
your faith, and try to get along and hope that being nice will somehow make a difference.

3. Religious Zealots
We think we can see the kingdom built through the force of politics: winning in the courts or
demanding our rights. We see this in certain political action committees and groups that use the
courts to fight for Christian legal rights. We sometime see this in the unsaid expectation that to
be a Christian means to be a member of only a certain political party.

I think, though, that through the Kingdom Parables we see Jesus using a fourth way. It is not to pull
away from the world, neither is it be to cozy up it and it certainly would not seek to pull it down by
force. Instead the radical and rebellious way that Jesus wants to set up his Kingdom is through internally
changing individuals so that as his changed people live righteously; they begin to change the world
around them.

Therefore, as we skew our perspective and see that we need God and then humbly submit to His
authority by realizing His ways are best, then we began to live in the Kingdom of God, while bringing the
Kingdom of God to fruition.