Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

Brethren, we are here to keep not only the weekly Sabbath, but also the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This day is holy. Even if it came during the week, it would be a high day, a holy day. Should Christians be keeping these days today? Most people feel they are ceremonial. But these are not ceremonial days. These are days that Jesus kept Himself. These are days the early church observed. We have many examples in the Gospels or in the Book of Acts and in the writings of the Apostles.

And they will be kept in the world tomorrow when Jesus Christ is reigning on the earth. We had a wonderful Passover on Thursday night, the most solemn and the most important service of the entire year, where we commemorated the death of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And then last night we had the beginning of the seven days of unleavened bread with the night to be much observed. When the Israelites began their journey out of Egypt, and it's a type of us beginning our journey coming out of this world today.

And today is the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We'll have these days now for seven days, seven days of unleavened bread. And many of us may not necessarily have thought about it, but tomorrow is a special day as well for us in the Church of God. But it's not Easter like it is in the world. Tomorrow is the day of the Wave Chief offering. And we don't have any special service on that day, but we did begin counting for Pentecost.

And seven weeks from tomorrow, on May 24, we will have Pentecost. There are so many things that we should be thinking about as we begin the seven days of unleavened bread. We see the leaven of evil and wickedness abounding in the world. It's getting worse every day, it seems. Truly, mankind would be ready at some point in the future to destroy himself, as Jesus said in Matthew 24, the Olivet prophecy.

So we know that Jesus promised to return and cut short these days and to set up God's kingdom on the earth. And Jesus will set his hand to de-leaven the earth. But guess what? It's going to take about 1,100 years, a millennium, of working with the nations. And then the second resurrection, however long that is, before the earth will finally be de-leavened. This world today desperately needs the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The pain, the suffering, and the death from sin is escalating.

And our hearts go out to human beings who are suffering so much from all the evils around the world. We hear things happening, people being massacred, terror on the increase in Africa, in the Middle East, and crime and evil all over the world. Why doesn't God step in? He could stop it right now if he chose to. But it's not quite his time. But he will step in at just the right time. My wife and I were talking about that recently. You know, all the evils can get through to you. We'd like to see them end. But we have to have trust and faith that God knows just when to cut short these days.

He knows just when to step in. And guess what? He's going to allow things to get much worse before he will step in, according to many Bible prophecies. But we have complete faith that he will step in at just the right time. Brethren, meanwhile, we have work to do. And we need to be busy about our Father's business. We have work of preaching the gospel to the world. And we also have work in our own personal lives. I'd like to zero in in the sermon this afternoon on something that we can all look at closely in our own lives.

We can zero in and see if maybe there are some hidden pieces of leaven that may be hidden that we ourselves need to work on. See how we measure up with what these days represent. These days represent putting away sin, purging out sin from our lives. And these days picture us taking on the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

And we can measure ourselves and think about how we're doing, do some introspection into how we're coming along. This Feast of Unleavened Bread can help us in our process of taking on the godly character and nature of Almighty God. We can become more fed up with sin. I mean, even shortcomings in sins we might have in our own lives than ever before. For we want to come out and with God's power and spirit we can put sins away and purge them out.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave nine the attitudes. He said, Blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the pure in heart, blessed are the peacemakers, and blessed are they that are persecuted. But I left one out, the first one. Let's turn to it in Matthew 5 and verse 3. That's the one I'd like for us to focus on this afternoon because I believe it does tie directly in with the meaning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

That's in Matthew 5 and verse 3, the very first of the attitudes. Very simple, and yet one that we need to understand more fully. And we need to analyze in our own lives to see how we're measuring up to it. In Matthew 5 and verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You know, you wonder why Jesus chose this one to be first until you look at it just a bit more deeply. Because this is a good starting point for all of us.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. What did he mean? Something that we need to understand. Jesus said we will be blessed if we have it. I want it then, don't you? I want to be blessed. This word for blessed and the great means will be happy. We'll be fortunate to have it. We'll have something that's very valuable if we have it. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Let's understand more fully what he meant.

It's very important to those who are poor in spirit. The kingdom of God will be given to them. Other translations help us to begin to broaden our understanding. They emphasized New Testament says happy, the destitute in spirit.

The Goodspeed New Testament says blessed are those who feel their spiritual need. The Berkeley New Testament translation says blessed are they who sense spiritual poverty. And the New English Bible says blessed are those who know that they are poor. The word for poor in the Greek is tochos, and it means a cringing beggar or popper. The word denotes a destitute beggar on the street asking for alms, a public beggar.

So spiritually, Jesus is saying blessed we will be if we become a spiritually destitute beggar on the street asking for something spiritual will be blessed. Jesus will say the kingdom of God will go to those who feel their spiritual need and who sense their spiritual poverty. In other words, those who are lowly in their own sight. Unstated but implied, Jesus was saying the kingdom of God will not go to the proud.

It will not go to the arrogant. It will not go to those who are puffed up. It will not go to those who are high and mighty in their own sight. I'd like to read from the Expositor's Bible commentary on this verse. And it says to be poor in spirit is not to lack courage, but to acknowledge spiritual bankruptcy. Are we willing? That's the beginning point, brethren, for us. That's where we need to begin to have the courage to acknowledge spiritual bankruptcy. We don't have anything in the bank spiritually when we begin this journey when God calls us.

We're going to need riches, but it will not come from us. It goes on to say in the Expositor's Bible commentary, it confesses, that is to be poor in spirit, one's unworthiness before God and utter dependence on Him. The kingdom of heaven is not given on the basis of race, earned merits, the military zeal and prowess of zealots or wealth.

It is given to the poor, the despised publicans, the prostitutes, those who are so poor, they know they can offer nothing and do not try. They cry for mercy and they alone are heard.

So, do you go around? Evaluate yourself along the way in this sermon. Do you go around every day sensing your spiritual need, your spiritual poverty? Or do you feel spiritually rich? This Feast of Unleavened Bread teaches us to grow in this attribute of being poor in spirit.

Again, we'll be blessed. We'll be fortunate to have it. We'll have a great treasure, a great priceless possession.

Like for us to notice that there are scriptures that help us in understanding what it means to be poor in spirit, God is looking for those who are poor in spirit. Let's turn to Psalm 34 and verse 18. Psalm 34 and verse 18.

And here we read, the Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.

Certainly a broken heart, one that is broken to do the will of God, one that has humbled itself to do God's will and obey God, and a contrite spirit, one that is crushed. The word in the Hebrew means actually crushed, a crushed spirit, one that is again broken to do the will of God. And God is near. That's the kind of people that God likes to be around, one that is poor of spirit. God doesn't like to be around the proud.

When you come to think about it, do we either? When someone is just full of himself and full of pomp and arrogance, we don't enjoy being around such a person, do we? And God doesn't enjoy being around someone that is high and mighty and lifted up, but someone that is truly humble in his own sight, someone that's poor in spirit. God enjoys being around them, enjoys being near to them. Let's go to Psalm 138. Psalm 138 and verse 6. Psalm 138 and verse 6. Though the Lord is on high, and he is, God is way up on high in the third heaven. Yet he regards the lowly, he regards the lowly, those who are poor in spirit. But the proud he knows from afar.

It's kind of like us. We just don't want to get too close to someone either if they're just full of themselves and full of pride and vanity. We don't want to be around somebody like that. And God doesn't want to be around someone that's all lifted up and proud and exalted about himself. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 57. Here's a beautiful verse on those that God likes to be around. He likes to hang out with. You have certain ones you like to hang out with? Well, God does too. He has certain ones he likes to hang out with. Guess who they are? In Isaiah 57 and verse 15, thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity. He has eternal life, always has, always will. The high and lofty one, the very highest of all, inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. So God likes to dwell with those who are humble and contrite. The word contrite in the Hebrew is dakah, D-A-K-A. It means crushed.

It means beat to pieces. It even means bruised and crumbled. You know, our spirit needs to be crushed and crumbled before God to do his will. God likes to see us have that type of attitude, a humble spirit that is broken to do his will. He looks for people like that. Look at Isaiah 66 and verse 2. Isaiah 66 and verse 2, For all those things my hand has made, and all those things exist, says the Lord. But on this one will I look. And we know already what it is. On him who is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word. God has a high respect. Guess what? If we, the more we have this quality, this attribute we're talking about, poor in spirit, I believe the more we'll be getting in line with the core, a core meaning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. But guess what? God will look upon us and draw closer to us because we've drawn closer to him.

He'll like what he sees. The Hebrew word for contrite here is a different one, naka, N-A-K-E-H. It means smitten. It means lame. It means maimed. That means we are totally broken to do the will of God. We've become lame and maimed as far as pride, as far as self, as far as our own personal vanity. And again, this is the very heart and core of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It's the lowliness of heart and mind from which we operate. It's a crushed and smitten spirit. Jesus himself had this type of spirit and attitude when he was human. Let's read that in Matthew 11. When Jesus was human, he did not feel high and mighty. He did not feel lifted up. He said that he could do nothing of himself. He felt helpless. It was the Father who did the works in him. So Jesus was crushed himself. He was contrite, humble to his Father. He set us an example then as far as poor in spirit. And so in Matthew 11 and verse 28, he said, Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and lowly in heart.

Jesus was poor in spirit. And you will find rest for your souls. That's just the way that it does work. Once we no longer try to establish how great we are, which of course is not true because we're not great, we're always fighting against the truth in doing that. Once we accept the truth of the matter and become poor in spirit, then we do find rest for our souls. And like Jesus, our yoke becomes easy and our burden becomes light. I recently had an email from someone that I knew when we were in Oregon. We served in Oregon, Salem, Oregon from 1980 to 1985, that five-year span. And you never know what kind of impact you have on people, but this individual heard that I was retiring and he just wanted to write me and let me know that I'd had a little impact upon his life, which made me feel very happy that I'd had a positive influence. But just the way that he wrote this letter was you can see that it's a humble and broken spirit. It's a good spirit before God. It's one of this poor and poor in spirit. Here's what he said, I remember years ago when I was a teen in the Vancouver, Washington church. We traveled down to Salem for many teen events. And this young man thought more highly of himself than he ought to have. He was one of those teens that came down. I don't remember anything about him or this. I remember the family, and it's been a long time back, but he looks back and he realized he thought more highly of himself than he ought to have. And he goes on to say, and isn't this a beautiful poor in spirit attitude? He said, God over the years has been merciful and gentle to me, teaching me these past 50 years many useful things. I certainly have not deserved the blessings God has given. A wonderful wife of 25 years, three sons, and a daughter.

So, you know, what a good attitude and spirit that is. So, brethren, there are many, many verses in the Bible that help us to understand more deeply what it means to be poor in spirit. Sometimes it helps us to understand when we think about the opposite. What's the opposite of poor in spirit? Would it not be to be rich in spirit? To feel spiritually rich? To feel spiritually full? A good example would be the Pharisees.

And let's just take a moment to read a couple of examples of the Pharisees. Matthew 9. Matthew 9, verse 9. Jesus saw a man named Matthew, and he said, follow me. And as Jesus, and he was a tax collector who were hated among the Jews, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Well, when Jesus heard that, he said to them, you know, these Pharisees were so righteous in their own eyes. They were so full.

They were rich in spirit as far as the way they viewed themselves. And so why does your teacher lower himself to eat with tax collectors and sinners? Why, we would never do a thing like that. That'd be below our level. That was implied here. When Jesus heard that, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. And he was saying that these who were spiritually full already didn't need anything else spiritually then.

He said, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Truth is, we all are sinners. So, no, these Pharisees were smug and righteous and spiritually rich. They didn't need any of the riches of God. They were already just fine. And Jesus came for those who are not just fine. Those with spiritual needs, the poor in spirit. Let's go to Luke chapter 18 and verse 9. Luke chapter 18 and verse 9, we've read it many times. He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. And he said, two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. This man had no additional, had no feel of spiritual need, no sense of spiritual poverty. He felt very happy just where he was. So he was rich in spirit.

But what about the tax collector? Verse 13, the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus said, I tell you, this man went down to his house, justified rather than the other. This man, the publican, did have spiritual need. He needed God's mercy. He needed God's help. He felt his spiritual poverty. There's a church described in Revelation 3 that is that looked at itself, viewed itself as rich and increased in goods and in need of nothing. The Laodicean church. I don't think we'll turn to that, but that's in Revelation chapter 3 and beginning in verse 14. We have a church, the Corinthian church, that felt good about itself. They were puffed up, and Paul had to write to them. Let's do read just a few verses here.

And they felt secure about themselves. They felt that they were just a-okay. They were smug.

They were lifted up. And Paul had to really correct them and bring them down to reality.

And he was trying to lead them in the direction of becoming or having a poor in spirit attitude.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 6, your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? The word for glorying here in the great means to boast or to glory or to vant. You know, glorying is never good. Let's always keep that in mind. It's never good to exalt ourselves. It's never good to, in some way, try to lift ourselves up higher in our own sight. Paul described a little bit earlier. You really need to go back to chapter 1. He began to bring out that God had even called the weak of the world so that no flesh could glory in God's sight. He begins to build up to word chapter 5 and verses 6 to 8, even in chapter 1, because the Corinthians needed to be brought down. They needed to be humbled. They were puffed up.

And they had so many problems, so many things that needed to be corrected. Well, look at chapter 4. He really gets on to them beginning in verse 7. And who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? You think about us. What do we have of any real lasting value that we did not receive from God?

We don't have anything. Everything comes from God. Now, if you did indeed receive it, receive it from God, why do you glory as if you had not received it?

You think you have it on your own. And look at verse 8. You are already full. You're full.

You're already rich. You have reigned as kings without us. And indeed, I could wish you did reign, that we might also reign with you. These people felt good about themselves. They didn't have the attitude of being poor in spirit. They were rich in spirit.

In verse 10, Paul went on to say, we are fools for Christ's sake. We ministers of God, but you are wise. You're so wise. He's using sarcasm here. We are weak, but you are strong. You are distinguished.

We are dishonored. And so he needed to bring these people down and to have an attitude of being poor in spirit. So they could be blessed with it. They weren't being blessed with this pride, this lifting themselves up, being puffed up, full of vanity and feeling full spiritually.

Brother, it's kind of natural, though, to kind of want to feel good about ourselves, somehow, to be smug about ourselves. And we must resist this.

We must see the contrast between being poor in spirit and being rich in spirit, and choose to grow and have more and more of being poor in spirit.

The rich in spirit must contrast the rich in spirit and the poor in spirit. The rich in spirit doesn't sense his spiritual poverty and need.

He just doesn't see it. He's already full. He feels good about himself.

He feels good about his righteousness and good deeds and things he has done. He very likely feels superior in certain ways, maybe in knowledge and understanding, and feels very satisfied about himself.

Whereas the poor in spirit feels his spiritual need every day.

Feels lacking, like the Apostle Paul in Romans 7.

Lacking might even begin to see himself more and more like Paul did, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me.

The poor in spirit feels like the publican, but he needs all the mercy and forgiveness that God can provide.

The poor in spirit, like Paul wrote, knows nothing yet as we ought to know, no matter how much we know. We know nothing yet as we ought to know. We know very little.

And the poor in spirit seeks to be taught and accepts correction.

The rich in spirit feels rich, but is actually poor spiritually before God.

But the poor in spirit feels poor and is seeking to become spiritually rich through God. The spiritually rich feel, do not sense any spiritual need, but the poor in spirit see their spiritual need.

And they have a future. Theirs will be the kingdom of God.

As we can see, the poor in spirit is actually an attitude of heart and mind.

It is a viewpoint that we have toward ourselves.

And our spiritual need is a perspective that helps us to perceive our natural spiritual poverty.

It does not mean that we go around with a downcast, negative, gloomy spirit. Not at all.

One that is poor in spirit is the opposite, in fact. There is no woe is me. There is no self-pity.

The poor in spirit attitude is just a recognition of our inherent human spiritual poverty, our spiritual bankruptcy, and that we need to go to God every day daily for the true spiritual riches.

And the poor in spirit will go to God daily in prayer and in Bible study and meditation, begging for more of the Holy Spirit, begging for more of the faith of God and the love of God and knowledge and wisdom. And God will pour out His Spirit upon the poor in spirit who seeks the true riches He has to provide. Our human tendency, or nature, tends to go in the other direction, though. In Romans 12 and verse 3, there's a warning about thinking more highly of ourselves than we should. We do have to be aware of that. Romans 12 and verse 3.

I guess we will take time to read that, because it is a normal human tendency to think more highly of ourselves than we should.

Romans chapter 12 and verse 3, I say, Through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. Have you ever thought more highly of yourself than you should? Well, only you can answer for yourself, but I know that I have, and I don't want to do that. We've all been guilty of it, I do imagine.

Brother, if we want to be poor in spirit, it's something that will have to be an acquired attribute. It's something that will have to be provided for us that God can help us to have. It's not something we can just have on our own. But it's a good thing to have. Blessed are those who do grow in this attribute and come to have it and do not view themselves more highly than they should. It's good to feel that we are lacking. It's good to feel that we come up short. How bad it would be to say, well, I'm not lacking. I've got everything. That's the opposite of what we're talking about today. It would be very bad if we thought, well, I don't think I have any shortcomings.

It's very good when we realize we come up short. We do. We come up lacking. Jesus said, even when we do all the things commanded of us, then still we are to feel that we are unprofitable servants.

We should have done more. We could have done it better.

Let's ask God to help us to have more of this attribute, poor in spirit. Let's ask Him to help us sense our spiritual poverty. Let's go to Him daily, begging Him for the true riches. Are you poor in spirit, then? If so, Jesus said, you are blessed. The more of this attribute you have, the more blessed you are. The word in the Greek again means happy, fortunate, blessed.

You have something very precious, indeed, if in your heart you have this quality of being poor in spirit. Well, brethren, the feast is just beginning, isn't it? There's so much we can learn, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Let's determine we will grow during these seven days. Seven days long, tomorrow's a feast day, second day of unleavened bread, the next day is the third day, right on until next Friday. Each of the next six days is a feast day, ending with the seventh day next Friday.

And we are to grow. Look at your own life. Consider the sermon today. Consider other things that perhaps you can purge out in the way of leaven from your life, the leaven of malice and wickedness.

What ways are there that you can grow in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, taking on the meekness, the lowliness of mind, a humble and obedient heart? How can you become a better husband, a better man, a better father, a better woman, wife, mother? How can you grow as a young person? These are days of introspection into our lives. These are days of renewal, just as the beautiful colors are coming out and leaves, the renewing of God's creation all around us.

So we are to be renewed, and we are to be... we can rededicate our lives to the true spiritual values and riches. As we go through this feast, let's be thinking about our brethren. We have brethren in some of these troubled areas of the world. We have many brethren in Kenya, for example.

Pray for the safety and protection of our brethren everywhere.

Let's have a wonderful feast all seven days.