Matthew 5:3

POOR IN SPIRIT

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their’s is the kingdom of heaven.’

Matthew 5:3

It must have been an hour never to have been forgotten when Jesus, on that Mount, which was ever afterwards to be named, after His words, ‘The Mount of Beatitudes,’ ‘opened His mouth,’ and began His public ministry, with that term—so expressive of love, and hopefulness, and joy,—‘Blessed!’ Let all teachers, ministers, parents, learn the lesson, and copy His example. Place happiness first.

I. Who are ‘the poor in spirit’?—Who are those who are singled out for the first place in this college of the saints? Not the ‘poor-spirited’ only, for a ‘poor-spirited’ Christian is a contradiction in terms! Who, then, are they of whom He speaks?

(a) One who repays injury by kindness. I see a man. There was not a time when that man could not have been provoked by an unkind word, or an angry look. But see that man now he has become acquainted with Christ. He repays injury by kindness, and gives love for hatred.

(b) One who is humble before God. Follow a Christian into his retirement! You will see the earnestness of his devotions. Yet that man is the one that would tell you that his great trouble is the miserable poverty of all he prays, and all he says, and all he is.

(c) One who is always asking. There is another man. What a beggar he is at the door of mercy. He is always knocking at the door. Because he has nothing but what he receives, therefore he is always asking. Not as one who deserves anything, but as one who has no other claim, and all because of his own deep feeling of emptiness, and desolateness, and the Master’s kind promise.

II. The Kingdom is theirs.—Observe the present tense. It does not say ‘Their’s will be the kingdom of heaven.’ But now, in this present world, in all their poverty, now, at this moment, little as they see it, ‘Their’s is the Kingdom of Heaven.’ There is a kingdom of heaven at this moment in their heart. What is the kingdom of heaven? ‘Joy and peace in believing.’

III. Poorest here, richest there.—If there are degrees of blessings in the upper world, the poorest here in heart will be the richest there in glory! Be ‘poor’ enough in your own eyes, and God has not a blessing to give which is not yours!

The Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustration

‘People have often said, “Give us the Sermon on the Mount; that is enough for us.” Those persons would have been almost shocked by a hymn like “There is a Fountain filled with Blood,” or, “Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched.” They imagine the Sermon is only a set of moral rules. But they make a very great mistake. The fact is, our Lord begins by explaining life. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,”—those who can say with Toplady, “Nothing in my hand I bring.” No, no, this is not “morality,” it is the Evangel of Jesus, and behind it is the “Cross-crowned Calvary.” ’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

CHARACTERISTICS OF POVERTY

What is this poverty of which our Lord speaks? Plainly it is not poverty in estate, but poverty in spirit.

I. An inward attitude.—The rich man may be poor in spirit, and the poor man may have, in a bad sense of the word, pride of spirit. The poverty is not an outward condition, but an inward attitude. The poor, in the Bible sense of the word, are those who in the midst of the world’s display and power and vaunting and ridicule, keep themselves apart, ‘whose eyes are ever looking unto the Lord,’ and who find in Him their all-sufficient strength and stay.

II. Independence of the world.—This poverty of spirit has two characteristics closely akin to one another. The first is independence of the world—detachment—not to press claims upon life with urgent anxiety, but to take what comes with a cheerful spirit. It is to refuse to surrender oneself to the world, but rather to possess one’s own soul. These are days of self-advertisement, of love of notoriety, of adulation, of cleverness, of morbid self-consciousness, of over-strain of nerves. What we need as the healing for this spirit of the time is to have this poverty of spirit of which our Lord speaks. If we are to be God’s free men, we must first be God’s poor men.

III. Dependence upon God.—Poverty of spirit is not only independence of the world, but dependence upon God. We cannot separate the one from the other. The decisive question of life is, what is our horizon? Is it God or self? Is it time or eternity? The poor-spirited man in Christ’s sense is the man who stakes all upon God, and because of the greatness of the venture which he makes, knows that only God Himself can crown it with success.

Bishop C. G. Lang.

Illustration

‘That low man with a little thing to do,

Sees it and does it.

This high man with a great thing to pursue

Dies ere he knows it.

Short was the world here—should he need the next—

Let the world mind him.

He throws himself on God, and unperplexed

Seeking shall find Him.’