“Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit” | Matthew 5:1-16

Show Notes

Episode 711: 
In this episode, we dive into the fascinating topic of the Sermon on the Mount, specifically focusing on the Beatitudes found in Matthew chapter 5. As we read through the Beatitudes, we reflect on the countercultural nature of Jesus' message. He blesses those who are poor in spirit, mourn, are humble, hunger for justice, are merciful, and are persecuted. We discuss how these attributes, often seen as weaknesses in society, are elevated by Jesus as markers of true blessedness.

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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey everybody, it is Monday, and you have made the right choice by tuning in to the. Bickley for Mondays. Yes, no, who said that? Nobody? That was better. I'm going to retract that comment. We grew up reading Garfield, remember, yes, and Garfield's famous saying. Was I hate Monday. I hate Mondays. Yeah, Mondays aren't that bad. It's all perspective. It is. It really is. Although I will say this, I've not said this publicly anywhere, but so before I came to join the staff at Heritage Church with you, So I've been a pastor for what. Thirty three years, like three hundred and something. Yeah, so I guess I've been here four years. So for twenty nine years, five years, Chris coming up and coming Toby, Yeah, yeah, four and a half years. So for twenty nine years I had Mondays off. And then I came to here and you're like, oh no, no, we work Mondays. We work Mondays. We come in but don't come in for noon, you know, like a little bit rest. But then you know, you're here till you know, maybe four or five uh, and uh, but but now I end up coming, you know, like at ten in the morning and thirty in the morning. Yeah. And for forty years or thirty years, you also didn't preach four times on a Sunday either. Yeah, that's true. It's true. So so you preaching four times on Sunday and coming on a Monday, you're here for ten hours on a Sunday and then yeah. Yeah, anyway, I just uh and so anyway, when I got hired, uh, one of you know, Kyle who's also on the Bible Guys, Kyle, that Kyle, because there's multiple coles. Kyle said, oh, so it's it's just what you're used to. And I said, really you think so? And he goes, no, no, no, it's what you're used to. He goes, you'll get used to it. Four and a half years later, guess what is not used to it? Buddy, I am not used to it. Well, hey, we work here. No, no, no free loaders they here at the church. It's so funny. So anyway, hey, today we're going to dive into and continue with our series what if Jesus had a podcast? Yeah, which is such a fun idea, Yes, it is. So basically what we're doing is we're taking really famous comments and statements he made, yes, and we're working off of those. And so today is Matthew chapter five, which is the Sermon on the Mount. Yeah. Yeah, it's the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Yes, because the whole Sermon a Mount is Matthew five, six and seven. I know, yeah, yeah, I. Know that crazy. I was saying that for them, Jeff, I know that, Yes, I know, you know. I don't know why I said I know. But but before we get into that, we have a segment. And the segment is. Well, let's let me go back to that other piece that you were talking about, you know, getting working on mondays. Oh yeah, stuff. Now that we've had this little exchange, I've always thought we may not be smarter than other groups, and we might not be more talented than other groups, but there's not going to be anybody else that out works us, right right, and we just proved it a minute ago. Here we go. So today is guess the word. It's taboo, Yeah, right, the game taboo. And so we have to see if Chris can figure out the keyword while I give you clues. But I have five words that I cannot say, And. If you're watching instead of listening, hopefully we're gonna be able to put the words on the screen, the ones that Jeff cannot say, just to follow along. Yes, so you know I'm a musician. Yes, and I've played in some very large concert trumpet orchestra, with the orchestra. There you go, very good. Yes, I was gonna say with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. I did a few concerts, okay, with a different band. But anyways, this is a hard one. Tell us the words you couldn't say. I couldn't say music instruments, conductor, symphony, or performance. Oh wow, that was actually quite tough. This one's really hard. So we just celebrated Father's Day. We did. And when fathers get a certain age and they continue to indulge with steaks and with ice cream, they get a certain kind of shape couch potato, a certain kind of shape, a shape, and it's it's kind of a famous Oh dead bodadod there you go. That's funny. I couldn't say jim belly, comfortable sweatpants or snack. Oh that's great, that's great. Yeah, yeah, okay, Uh, you look through this telescope. There you go, Wow, stars, space lens, astronomy, magnify. Wow, I said, telescope. That's right. Remember when we were talking about dad bods. Yes, when you uh get up in the middle of the night, yep, for a you have to go to the bathroom. No, no, no, no prostate, No, no, you are getting it's the dad bod. It's how you get your dad Bodnah, midnight snack. There you go. That's funny. Well you said you said you have no night. That's awesome. You are getting old. Couldn't you say fridge hungry, secret leftovers and regret. That's great, that's a lovely regret one. That's funny. Okay. At the Louver. At the Louver, yep, there's all kinds of of paintings. There's paintings and things, but there's also not paintings, but they're made from like. Marble carvings, statues almost statues, carvings, marble master piece. What what is it? What is a carving? A carving? Is a car What is a carving? Carving is uh? You know our listeners are screaming this one right now? No, oh no, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, out of out of marble, it's a beautiful. Oh my goodness, I boy, I don't know anything. You're going to be so mad about this. Carving is a sculpture. Sculpture I can't believe. I can't believe it. So you said carving, So then I was able to say carve. But it's art, statue, carved stone shape. I can't believe I couldn't get sculpture. And for somebody who likes arts, I can't believe I couldn't come up with that. You go, yeah, so in good job. You know, for some reason, I always picture sculpture like made out of clay or something that's not marble for some reason. But but uh, marble is a sculpture. But but yeah, I'm sorry. I should have done better. You usually are better, clue guy, everything. You know why because the word sculpture implies sculpt right, and sculpting is in my mind is molding and shaping. But it's not like it could be shaving, like shaving off right, But like, but like when I do sculpt I mean I don't do sculptures nothing, but. I have done it when I'm in my sculpting studio. No, but but I've done my share of sculptures in our class and and I mold and I make right so so so that's so. For some reason, I wasn't when you said marble, I was not thinking sculptures. Oh yeah, you were thinking statue. Yes, And a statue in your mind's not a sculpture. Yeah. You remember when when Michaelangelo the famous quote. I don't mean you weren't there, but but you remember reading the famous quote where it said, how did you how did you turn a big block of marble into David? And do you remember what he said. That David was already inside he just had to get him out. That's right, that's right he said. He said David was always there. Yeah. Isn't that fun? Great speaking of amazing quotes and great perspective. Yeah, we're going to go into the message. The most amazing quote, Yeah. That Jesus preaches the longest sermon that he preaches in the Bible. Yeah, it's Matthew six seven and eight or five six and seven. I know, Jeff, Matthew five six and seven and in it is where he tells us almost all of the famous things people know. Jesus said turn the other cheek the golden rule. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Everybody, every every every person who lives in sin that doesn't want to be correct. It always wants to say judge, not that you be not judged. Right, Jesus said that Jojo this right. This is rare. Tought us to pray our father who art in heaven. This is ray toss to go the extra miles. The poor attitudes? Yep? Is there? So this whole five, six, and seven you could read those in twenty five minutes. It wouldn't take you long if you go find book of Matthew and read them. You're slow reader, maybe not. Okay, yeah, I would say. And if you're an average reader, okay, yeah, twenty five minutes, thirty minutes. Don't discriminate jeh, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. But we're just going to read the first sixteen verses of this message, and it starts off with what's called the beatitudes. Says So one day, as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountain side and sat down, and his disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them. Is it right? Yep? God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for Him, for the Kingdom of heaven is theirs. God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. God blesses those who are humble, for they'll inherit the whole earth. God blesses those who hunger and thirst it for justice, for they will be satisfied. God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy. God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. And God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you, and lie about you, and say all sorts of evil things against you, because you are my followers, be happy about it. Be very glad, for great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way. You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt of It's lost its flavor. Can you make it salty again? It'll be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. Well, there you go. There it is. And there's a lot packed in that little intro of the Sermon on the mount right right, And so the Beatitudes, who is it? Weirsby Warren Weersby, Warren Whersby, He writes the Little Beatitude the b series. And I got to tell you, even though, that those are ancient, and they really are, I mean from before we were kids. Right. Oh, he wrote them in the seventies and eighties. Yeah, seventies and eighties, so while we were kids. Yeah, super ancient, ancient, well just like us. But but the but those little tiny books, and I'm sure you can get them online as well, are actually fantastic and you could pick up and there's a little book for each beatitude, right, And he calls them beatitudes because it's a be right, uh, you know, be this way, blessed are and it says blessed are those poor. So he talked about those who are Poornce I have the n I V. By the way, I grabbed a Bible from my office. I grabbed a different version in but so your version at home, I'd say, blessed to the poor in spirit, you know, blessed. That's what the original Greek says is the poor in spirit. Poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, or in other words, the humble, uh, the those who thirst after righteousness, those who are merciful, those who are have pure hearts, and then those who work for peace, and those who are persecuted. And so that's just pretty amazing because those are not attributes that somebody would actually seek out, would they. Right, Like in that society, Jesus is lifting up what probably everybody in that society would condemn. Right. If somebody is humble, well then they're just you know, they're just not they're not leaders, they're not go getters, they're not uh you know, great big people who you know who like to puff themselves up and you know, show their righteousness on the corner on the corner of the streets, all those different kinds of attitudes that that the that the Pharisees had, and that Jesus is saying, Hey, those who are pure, those who are humble, those who are meek, those who are uh you know, uh poor in spirit, and uh and merciful. Well, gee, whiz showing mercy back then was a sign of weakness, wasn't it right? And you know in the Old Testament, you know, eye for an eye, all those different things. Jesus was actually introducing a brand new concept of love. And uh, you know, Jesus went on to say, you know, you've heard it. You've heard it said, you know, an eye for an eye. But I'm telling you that you have to forgive and and and to love your enemies. And and he introduces all these what paradoxal, upside down type comments that that really are rooted in love. And so Jesus lifts up these attributes you know, blessed, blessed if you're persecuted, what what like? You know, persecuted? Is I hate my life? But Jesus like, no, no, no. No, well you think you would think that was true. Well, I'm just trying to describe first century mentality, right, because because before this, nobody had ever said that, right, And I would imagine that anybody who's persecuted would probably think, no, yuck, there's there's no advantage of being persecuted, right, I hate it. And Jesus is like, no, if you get persecuted for my namesake, you're taking on punishment and ridicule and everything else. But guess what, You're gonna have a reward in heaven for you and enduring this for me. So the word beatitude means supreme blessing. And they would have heard the word as when it says blessed are those, or blessed are you? Or God blesses those, they would hear it, happy are you? You'll be happy with these things. So we did before you came to Heritage number of years ago. We just had a big yellow smiley face for the logo and I just want to be happy was the name of the series. Oh yeah, and preached through the beatitudes, and we covered several things. And it's amazing because it's mentioned here in the Life Application Study Bible. It says this section of Jesus teaching is often referred to as the Beatitudes. These verses can be understood in at least four different ways. One, there are code of ethics and a standard of conduct for all believers. Right, so being poor in spirit means being humble. I recognize that spiritually I don't have it all together. Doesn't matter how long I've been a follower of Jesus. Right, So if I'm humble in my spirit, then I recognize I need more of Jesus. So I'll be happier when I finally realize I haven't arrived yet. Yeah, but there's something to keep growing to me. Yeah, the opposite of pride or entitlement. Right. So, one, they can be viewed as a code of ethics or a standard of living for all of Jesus followers. The other way to view it is that they contrast kingdom values what's eternal, with worldly values or what's temporary. And so this idea of constantly being hungry for Christ, constantly being aware of the fact that I need Jesus or whatever those things. Even persecution has an eternal impact. God says there's eternal reward for those who are persecuted, Whereas if you're always avoiding it, avoiding any kind of persecution, that usually means you're also willing to compromise with the world to fit in, right, and so making temporary decisions instead of eternal decisions, or at the. Very least afraid to stand up for anything. Yeah, yeah, which means usually you're just going with the flow, which means you're compromising. Yeah. I suppose that is what is you know, biblical values. And so it's contrasting between those things that are eternal and those things that are temporary. So if you have a choice, choose the eternal thing. That's kind of Jesus is laying that out there. So those are two of the ways. The third way is they contrast the superficial faith of the of the Pharisees with the real faith that Jesus demands. Right, the Pharisees were, look at us, Look how holy we are. Look right, blow the trumpet, just so that everybody can know it's time to pray with them. Right, those kinds of. Things, which is why I said stand on the corner. Yeah, those whose hearts are pure, those who are merciful, that's exactly the opposite. Those who hunger and thirst for justice is Jesus way, and Jesus followers need to be that way. And it was exactly in contrast to the fact that the Pharisees were not this way. The Pharisees didn't seek justice. The Pharisees picked up stones chance, every chance they get to stone another person to death for breaking the law. Right, And so he seems to be contrasting those two things because this, this is that first big message he preaches after he starts becoming really famous, and the only real religion that people knew was the religion of the Pharisees, and so he's kind of dissected. So he starts off his message separating my kingdom is very different from the kingdom of their building that he's doing that. And then the fourth one is they show how the Old Testament expectations will be fulfilled in the New Testament, right, because then he sets those first ten verses and then he unpacks most of those verses, those beatitudes, he unpacks through the whole rest of the things. Don't judge, rely on God, seek justice, right, go the extra mile. It's really fabulous. You know that. I'm not sure that I've ever had that thought before. Structurally, like, you know, because I write sermons, so do you? Yeah, you love the structure of a thing. Yeah, and so it's an intro. It's an intro for the rest of the. The first ten The first ten verses are the introduction for the rest. So the rest of the three days unpacks all these big ideas forgive, forgive those that want to hurt you, pray for them, do good to them. Right, that's the persecution thing. You go down the line. Everything that Jesus talks about after this, he introduces in this first piece. I would love first of all, the Beatitudes. They don't do that, do they do? The little the weirds be books? Do they actually have the being? Yeah? So yeah, the weirds b books don't go exactly in line with the beatitudes, but he got the idea from the beatitudes. Yeah. I was just thinking like like, if the beatitudes are sorry, I need to move on from this revelation. But if these ten verses are an intro of like, okay, let's talk about these ten things now for the next three chapters. If that's the case, I would love to read something that takes the entire sermon on the Mountain and puts them under the categories of these ten things. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Like I would love I think when we when I preached it through that series, I think I tied those together. I think, And if not, I talked about it, but I don't remember. It was a long time ago, ten years. It's not on percent of the content, it's it's a lot of it was. Yeah, it's really amazing. So that those are the four ways to view it, and quite honestly, I think all four of those ways are the appropriate way. It's not like it's one or the other. It's all of them. And then he doesn't lay these out as a la carte. You know what one is? I really like. I like the ones where God blesses humble people, and I like the ones where God says those who work for peace. But I don't like the persecution. I like that, right, It's not a la carte. It's just this. These are the kingdom values, and this is how my people are going to start living from here. I know. Did you happen to go to the place where they believe that he preached a sermon on the mountain? Yes? Yeah, that it's one of my favorite places in Israel. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, Well the acoustics would have been tremendous. There's so there's there's a hill that comes up fairly steeply from the Sea of Galilee, so you have this stunningly beautiful view and there's all these rocks all around, big rocks. There's a there's a church there now that they built a church up at the top of the hill. But when you come down off the hill, there's kind of a garden and then there's all these rocks and stuff, and it kind of makes a little bit of a natural amphitheater, especially if you go off to the what is it that would be the southwest a little bit. You can kind of see how it turned into kind of a bowl and you could have had thousands of people there and Jesus just speaking that your voice just carries so well without having to use a you know, a sound system or something. Now, did they test it by somebody going down there and you're standing up there? No, No, we didn't have a they didn't have it tour guide. Oh yeah, well they get that for us. They So the guy walks all the way down and then just talks and you're like, son of a gun, like you can hear him and it's pretty amazing. So you know, think about I mean, I mean, they were pretty advanced Roman. I'm sure Roman architecture were pretty pretty incredible. But just the idea that like God would have you know, So I have these thoughts all the time. You have to forgive me. But like when God was creating the earth and when God was formed, mean you know, you know, all the rocks and putting them all into place, I wonder and I think the answer is yes. I wonder if he would have thought, I'm going to make this a natural amphitheater. So that because Jesus is going to yes, yes, yeah, oh, I totally believe. Yeah. And so I believe that I believe that God, you know, in his omniscience just you know, knew that yeah, you know. Uh, it's it's the same thought that uh, what's his name, Ron Hubbard when he when he was when he was in Israel and he was unpacking things, and there's a theory that maybe this is exactly where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. You know, there's like a waddie there's a big beach there, you know. And then uh and so if you do a sonar, uh, there's is you know the Dead Sea or the Red Sea. Uh is wide in a lot of places, and then there it's thin in a lot of places, right, and but there's actually if you do a sonar, it actually comes up and there's a natural land bridge. There's a land bridge from one side of the other under the surface of the surface of the sea. Now we don't know if that's where they crossed, but there's a lot of evidence that suggests that could be where they're from. Maybe God planned it for right there. Yes, and so when God, so when God was making the earth, he's like, I'm going to make a natural language because one day, one day, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think that God does those things all the time. And so when you read these passages, understanding that he's saying, you need to allow me to change your mind. Remember in the Book of Romans, it says we're transformed by allowing God to change the way we think, right, Romans, chapter twelve. And I think that's what Jesus is doing, is he's kind of hitting reset. This is the first big message. He'd already preached, repent and turned to God, the King of Heaven is near. He'd done some of those things, but as far as this first big, full fledged message, this very likely is a conglomeration of multiple days of preaching, right that they put together there in this preaching session. But he's hitting reset on everything that people understood about faith, religion in those things and starts putting it into a lifestyle that his heart driven more than rules driven. Right, So the Pharisees had all these laws, and they were pretty good at keeping those laws, but their heart was far from God as a matter of fact. In this message, was it when you get in chapter seven he goes he starts calling out the Pharisees, and he tells him, you guys are like painted tombs whited sepulchers. You're painted white and beautiful and clean on the outside, but on the inside you're full of dead men's bones. That's the whole point. That's how he kind of ends this message. The beginning of the message is, let me tell you, it's all about the heart. How you approach this thing is more important than just cleaning up the outside. Although as you begin to go God's way, the outside cleans up too. So that's it, and that's why he says, you're the light light of the world city, your light on a city on a hill. Right, and by the way, which our politicians have used that phrase many times it describe our country. But Jesus, Jesus said it first, that's right. And by the way, this is the conversation that he had with the woman at the well. And the woman at the well, they were talking about, you know, like traditions and where should you worship, and you have to worship on this mountain or that, you know, or in Jerusalem where the temple is. And then this conversation was and then Jesus looked at her and said, soon there will come a time where it won't matter where you are. You can just worship God in spirit and in truth. Right, just in spirit and truth. It's all about the heart. That's right. And yeah, that's that's amazing. So then what's inside should be coming out. And so he hits reset and says, it's all about the heart. But then, if your heart's right, you're the salt of the earth. You're going to make an impact. Do you touch on the. If your heart's right, you're the light of the world. And so he ends it with in the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. It's interesting because earlier, a little later, just a few versus later, he calls out the Pharisees for bringing attention to themselves when they give generously to poor people, or when they pray or when they fast, And at the same time he says, listen, when your heart's right, then your motivation for doing good is so that others will see that there's a God in heaven who changes lives. Yeah, rather than look at how good of a follower of God, I am right. There's a big differ between those two things. And I love how Jesus uses salt and then light. And so now salt just in itself is a tremendous illustration because it was such a valuable commodity. Absolutely, so salt. Preserves that you can rub it on meat, Salt heels, right, we gargle with salt, water, salt, it flavors, right, salt, what else does it do? Salt melts, we throw around rock, salt, and so salt does so many different things, and it's a valuable commodity. And he says, hey, if it loses all that, it just it gets thrown out. But as of right now, you are the salt of the earth. You are the people. You're my disciple. Salt changes everything, It touches everything. Yes, And then he goes on to say, you're the light of the world. Then, and you know, think about light. Think about how valuable light is compared to the darkness. And so he says, nobody lights a candle and puts it under a bushel. He's like, that defeats the purpose of light, right, think about it. He says, no, you light a candle where you put it. You put it on a candlestick high in the house. Why so everybody in the room could see. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. And he's referring to cities that were built back then. Oftentimes were placed on hills as beacons, but more so for strategic purposes, so that people could not attack. They'd have to climb up a hill. Then they would build walls around the city. They have to climb uphills and then scale walls. And so to fortify a city, you would place it up on a hill. And when it's lit at night, with all the torches and everything else, you cannot hide that city. You can see it from miles around. And so at night time, if you're traveling you don't have to wonder where the city is, as it's there, and so everybody would have known that. And so he says, hey, it's just like a city on a hill. I cannot be hidden. Therefore, you are the light of the world. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father, which is in heaven. Because you're just like that light on a candlestick. You're like that city on a hill. And he says, and he say, the value of light in the darkness, the value of salt on the earth. That's who we are in Christ. I love how he chooses both of those, and they're so rich. Man. All right, well, sorry about that. We won't pass our time, but we will see you hopefully tomorrows. Everybody that's free. We're not trying to scam anything, all right, We'll see you next time on the Valva. Guys,