Matthew 5:3
When the Lord Jesus Christ began His
ministry, the people gathered to Him because He touched and transformed their
lives. They became His converts and disciples. Prior to His coming into the
world, humanity had lived without the revelation and power of God for 400
years. So, when He saw the multitudes, He saw their ignorance and separation
from God. If a preacher does not see his audience with spiritual eyes, he will
not be able to give them the revelation from God. But when the preacher sees
the nature and needs of his audience, he realizes his inability and lack of the
wherewithal to minister to them without God’s grace. With this, he sees the
need to come up to a plain higher than the people. Those who minister to
multitudes must, like Christ, be higher spiritually than their audiences. As a
minister, you will not be effective if you are at the same level of blindness
or ignorance with your audience. To be an effective minister to multitudes of
blind, ignorant, weak, sick, fainting and discouraged men, you must be on a
higher plain spiritually.
As our Lord begins His message by
drawing the picture of blessedness, He tells who the blessed man is. The path
of blessedness as revealed by Christ is different from that advocated by the
people of the world. The poor in spirit are the lowest in the rung of the
ladder and the kingdom of God is at the very highest. He was teaching that,
blessed are the people that are lowly because they are the ones that will be
high and lofty; blessed are the humble, they are the ones that will have the
exaltation and glorification. “Blessed are the poor [not
the proud or arrogant] in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
These are the first recipients of the blessedness of the kingdom.
1. MEANINGFUL PERCEPTION OF THE POOR IN SPIRIT
Matthew 5:3; Isaiah 66:2; 57:15; Psalm 49:6-8; Revelation
3:17-22; Psalms 34:6,18; 40:17; Ecclesiastes 7:8;
Proverbs 16:5; John 9:26-34; Matthew 18:3,4; James 4:6-10.
What does Jesus mean by being poor in spirit and who are
those who are poor in spirit? (i) Being poor in spirit does not mean poverty in
substance. There are people who are poor in substance and yet are very proud. A
person may be poor in substance, having nothing and yet is still very proud.
(ii) It does not mean the poverty-stricken people. A person may be
poverty-stricken and yet not be poor in spirit. (iii) It does not mean those
who are in penury and starvation. There are those who are in penury and are
starving but will reject help because of the pride in their hearts. The poor,
literally, are those who lack money to provide for the basic necessities of
life. With regard to eternity, the basic thing is salvation. The poor in spirit
is one that realizes that he has nothing to pay for his salvation but relies on
Christ completely for his salvation. The poor in spirit and the proud in spirit
are different. In fact, you cannot be poor and proud in spirit simultaneously.
To be poor in spirit is to realize that you have nothing to pay for your
salvation and therefore, tremble before God: “him that is
poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” The poor in spirit looks at the might,
greatness and justice of God and sees his insignificance and absolute need of
the mercy of God.
Wealth and riches have limitations. There are some things
rich people cannot have. They may be rich but that does not necessarily make
them knowledgeable. Wealth may be there yet they are not immune from physical
or emotional pain. There are those who are rich yet lack wisdom to live and
interact with people peaceably. If, in spite of their riches, they are not able
to buy physical things with money, how much less the kingdom of God and all its
wealth.
There are those who are poor but do not know that they are
destitute like the Laodicean church. Yet, by heaven’s estimation,
they are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and
naked”. When you realize who God is and who you are before Him,
pride will have no place in you even after you have been born again; you will
maintain an attitude of contrition in your relationship to Him.
2. MERCIFUL PROMISE FOR THE POOR IN SPIRIT
Matthew 5:3; Isaiah 57:15; 2 Chronicles 12:6,7,12;
33:12,13; Luke 15:17-24; 2 Chronicles 7:14; 1 Kings 3:7-14; Proverbs 22:4; 29:23;
Job 22:21-29.
There is a misconception that those who are poor in
spirit, who are always conscious of their spiritual weakness are miserable.
These know that they merit nothing and have nothing. They only depend on the
grace of God. People think that this virtue, characterized by a humble
lifestyle, is hopelessness in the natural. Thus, the proud in spirit avoid them
because they are thought capable of infesting others with their plight. But God
reckons with them. But “blessed [happy, fortunate and favoured] are
the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).
To acknowledge that it is only God that can meet your need and that nothing
else qualifies you to receive from Him is poverty of spirit that God blesses.
Everyone is a real beggar in the sight of the Lord. But everyone who refuses
the offer of salvation and passes to the great beyond becomes a miserable
beggar.
Every sinner, big or small, is poor. He must beg for the
redemption of his soul from the Lord. When we come to the Lord with a humble
spirit and with the understanding of our poverty of spirit, trusting only in
His mercy, He gives us salvation. This is because Jesus paid for it so we
possess it freely. If we are poor in substance, He also gives us His
substance, supply and sufficiency. He cares, not
only about our salvation but also for our physical well-being that, as
believers, we do not have to beg unbelievers to maintain or sustain us. As you
remain poor in spirit and depend upon the Lord, He gives you strength to live
righteously and power to be victorious over sin when you call upon Him. The
Lord protects you from the wicked in the world too because He’s the Defence of
His people. The poor then are not miserable as the people of the world think.
They are not even to suffer dejection. Rather, they are the blessed and
favoured ones who should rejoice in the Lord. Great and marvellous then are
God’s promises for the poor, humble, lowly and penitent who are always and
completely leaning and trusting only in the grace of God. He is blessed on
earth and he will be forever blessed and happy in heaven.
3. MATCHLESS PROVISION FOR THE POOR IN SPIRIT
Matthew 5:3; 4:17; 18:3,4; Luke 18:13,14; James 2:5;
Colossians 1:13,14; Matthew 16:19.
None of the kingdoms of this world can compare with the
kingdom of heaven in its provisions for the citizens. “Blessed
are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus
preached that repentance grants the sinner entrance into the kingdom of God.
Being poor in spirit and being penitent or repentant are the same but the
provision for our salvation is matchless and incomparable to any other
provision available on earth. We depend on Christ completely for our salvation
and literally every other need in our lives. And without this salvation that
Christ purchased with His blood for us, we will be lost forever. The sinner who
penitently trusts in the Lord for his salvation and prays for it receives it.
He is redeemed by the Lord “who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In
whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians
1:13,14). What a provision, privilege, benefit, blessing! Joy and
peace also flood the heart of the converted. But it requires humility
because the way up is down. Kingdom benefits are for the poor in spirit
who enter in through the gate of salvation to possess all the riches therein.
Believers who remain poor in spirit receive the keys to the kingdom of God. The
poor in spirit is truly rich. What Matthew refers to as “the
kingdom of heaven” is referred to as “the kingdom of God”
in other gospels. Compare Matthew 5:3 and Luke 6:20; Matthew 4:17 and Mark
1:14,15; Matthew 10:1,7 and Luke 9:1,2; Matthew 11:11 and Luke 7:28; Matthew
13:10,11 and Luke 8:9,10; Matthew 13:31,32 and Luke 13:18,19; Matthew 13:33 and
Luke 13:20,21.
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